Harry Potter and the Secret Shinobi
by Rahlian
Summary: Naruto and Sakura are hired to protect the Golden Trio while posing as students. And they have to avoid the wrath of one Dolores Umbridge. NaruSaku HPxNaru HarryPotterxNaruto Effectively abandoned for Shinigami no Naruto. Might come back to this someday.
1. In Which We Are Introduced to the Pertin

**A/N: **Hello everyone! I would like to welcome you to Harry Potter and the Secret Shinobi, a HPxNaruto (duh!) cossover taking place during Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, and two years after the start of Naruto Shippuden. I know I already have one HPxNaruto crossover going, and I promis you that I am not abandoning it, but my muse has latched herself firmly onto this idea, and wont help me with HPRS until I get this out of my system. Sorry. Hopefully this will be different enough from HPRS that you guys wont get them confused.

Disclaimer: You know I dont own Naruto. Harry Potter too for that matter. Is it really necessary for me to voice my own inadequacy?

* * *

"English Speech"

_"Japansese Speech"_

_'Thoughts'_

**Chapter 1: In Which We Are Introduced to the Pertinant Characters**

**Hokages complex**

"Tsunadaaaaa-obaa-chaaaaaaan!" Tsunade was sitting at her desk, working on the omnipresent paperwork that accompanied the office of Hokage. How had she ever let Jiraiya talk her into accepting the post? She still wasn't sure. Shizune was coming in with another foot high stack of reports when she heard her name being screamed. "Tsunade-obaa-chan,Tsunade-obaa-chan, we're back!"

Shizune deftly sidestepped the charging Naruto as he caromed off the doorjamb and bounced into her office, swinging his fox-faced ANBU mask as if it were a child's toy. At first when she had met him as Jiraiya's apprentice, she had been thoroughly unimpressed with him as a shinobi. Now after having known him for nearly a year and half, her opinion of him had done a thorough 180. Releasing a small smile at his exuberant antics, Tsunade replied wryly, "Yes, Naruto, I can see that. I assume you have the payment for your mission?"

It hadn't been a long one, or a particularly difficult one for the teenage ANBU. Tazuna, the bridge builder that Team Kakashi had been assigned to protect as their first mission, had requested help. While strictly speaking, it really wasn't a mission suited to a ninja of Naruto's calibre, she sent him anyway, seeing as the mission was likely to have a sentimental value for him.

Naruto reached into a pocket, but withdrew nothing. Searching his other jacket pocket, he found nothing. Becoming increasingly frantic, Naruto threw off his orange jacket, searching all the pockets again. Realizing that the payment wasn't there, he slowly stood up and turned to face the thundercloud that had formerly been known as Godaime Hokage Tsunade. "Ah, I ah, had it here a mom..." Naruto started to explain, when Sakura strolled in the room, looking vaguely irritated. Naruto's gaze latched on to the tan package envelope Sakura held in one hand.

"Looking for this, baka?" Naruto cheered up instantly at the sight of the precious envelope.

"Oh there it is. How'd you get it Sakura-chan?"

Before replying, Sakura cocked her arm back, and launched the envelope at Naruto. Normally a nearly empty envelope such as that would have merely been caught by an errant gust of wind and been deflected aside. Sakura's strength was such that the envelope sliced right through the air and caught him in his gaping mouth. "You dropped it Naruto, running from your apartment to the Hokage's complex." Still striding forward, she retrieved the envelope, flicking him with it again before she placed the check on the desk. '_How that that boy ever passed the ANBU trials is beyond me,' _the Godaime Hokage mused.

She smiled at the pink-haired kunoichi and spoke, "Thank Kami-sama that Naruto has you to look after him." That certainly was correct. While Naruto was probably the most able ninja in the entire village in terms of combat capabilities, he was sorely lacking in just about every other facet of ninja arts. "How did the mission go?"

"About as well as expected. One of Gato's successors had been threatening Tazuna again. It really wasn't much a mission to tell the truth. Once we arrived and showed a little muscle, they were quick to back down. Bit of a disappointment if you ask me."

"Well it was a C-ranked mission."

"Yeah I know. Naruto wanted to see the Great Naruto Bridge, mostly."

Grinning shamelessly Naruto agreed. "Yep, and it was really long too. Like way long."

"Well, you two arrived at the perfect time. We have a new client for a long term mission, A-ranked."

While Sakura looked pleased, Naruto was positively ecstatic. "All right Tsunade-obaa-chan! You're the best!"

"Be quiet Naruto. This is from an old friend of the Sandaime's." Digging through several piles of paper, Tsunade grunted and muttered, until Shizune came over a pluck the relevant paper off the top of the pile nearest Tsunade. Sakura rolled her eyes. Tsunada-shishou and Naruto were more alike than either of them realized. Handing the paper to Shizune, she handed it to the pair for perusal.

Tsunade Hokage-dono,

My name is Dumbledore Albus. I don't know if you have heard of me, but I was a friend of Sarutobi Hokage-dono when we were younger. Recently a Dark wizard by the name of Voldemort has begun to rise in power among the British Wizarding world. As Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, I wish to hire your village to send a pair of shinobi as undercover guards for Harry Potter, the boy who caused Voldemort's fall from power fifteen years ago.

If you accept, send this letter back with your reply on the reverse by the owl who delivered it. I will then send details for the mission upon acceptance.

Sincerely  
Dumbledore Albus

When the pair had finished reading the letter, they looked up as Tsunade spoke. "I have accepted Dumbledore-san's request. Now I need to know if you want to accept it."

"How long will it last?" Sakura inquired immediately.

"Approximately ten months. Right now that is all I know."

"What about Sasuke?" Since Sasuke's forcible return to Konoha eighteen months ago, they had spent nearly every waking moment with the black haired Uchiha, for the dual reasons that they wanted to get to know him again, and Tsunade had an ANBU squad on him whenever he was not in the company of the other two. "Sasuke-kun will not be accompanying you on this mission. The client has paid for only two ninja for this mission." Sakura frowned slightly, hoping that they would be able to tell Sasuke of their departure before they left. They weren't surprised at all that they were leaving without him. When Sasuke had been returned, he had been detained in a cell in the Konoha prison for four days, until the pair was able to convince Tsunade to release him under their supervision. She had acquiesced reluctantly, knowing that the council would give her hell for it. After Naruto and Sakura had become ANBU, they realized that they would have to leave Sasuke for a long term mission eventually. "Do you accept?"

"Hai," they both said simultaneously, not even bothering to consult the other.

"Excellent. Well, The mission will not start for another month or so. I want the pair of you to spend that time researching all you can find on English wizardry in the Konoha Archive." Sakura sighed. She knew that even though Tsunade-shishou said both, the responsibility would enevitably fall to her shoulders to do the work herself, and then fill Naruto in on the pertinant details later.

For the next month, the pair practically lived at the library, learning about speech, customs, food, and history. They would often check out the books and go to Naruto's apartment to study further.

Before Naruto had left on his two and a half year apprenticeship with the Toad Sage, Jiraiya, Naruto had been an annoyance, a speed bump in her single minded pursuit of Sasuke's affection. It had been a terrible wake up call to her when he had abandoned her and the village in his quest for power.

Sakura's apprenticeship with Tsunade had taught her a lot of things about herself and life in general. As she had grown under the Hokage's tutelage, she had realized something, and that was that she had never really loved Sasuke. Lusted after him, certainly. But she didn't love him. She had wanted him as a status symbol of sorts, something to show the entire village that she wasn't just an average, mediocre kunoichi.

Sakura doubted that Sasuke would ever find love. She didn't doubt for a second that he would marry, but she thought it would most likely be a political arrangement, not something of love. After all, he had to revive the Uchiha clan somehow.

Naruto was Sasuke's polar opposite in practically every facet of life. Both sought power, but while Sasuke quested for death, Naruto quested for life. Sasuke's gloomy, eternally dark, bad boy attitude left no room in his life for anything but one thing.

The only day that she could ever really recall seeing Naruto sad was at the Sandaime's funeral, after Otogakure's lightning strike. Naruto lived, no, lusted for life in a way only seen in tiny children who ran and laughed for no reason other than for the pure joy of running and laughing. While his eternally optimistic demeanor occasionally grated on her nerves, it was what allowed Naruto to push on no matter what the odds were, because tomorrow was bound to be a better day. And if the next day wasn't better, then the day after it surely would be.

_--Flashback--_

When Naruto had returned it had been a shock to realize how much he had truly missed him. Konoha had been a far quieter place without Naruto pranking everyone left and right. He had constantly astounded her with the amount of trouble he could get himself, and by extension, her and Sasuke into. And she realized, she loved him for it.

So after Naruto had come back, she had hoped that he would still like her. When she had taken Naruto out for ramen at the Ichiraku Ramen Bar she had asked him how he felt about her. Grinning fit to kill, he said "You know I love you Sakura-chan. Always."

"It's been a long three years Naruto."

"Yeah it has. I can't tell you how much I have missed this place. Especially the ramen," directing a billion-watt smile to Teuchi and his daughter, Ayame, the father daughter pair that ran the best ramen stand in the world, at least to Naruto's not-unbiased mind.

Heart hammering like it was going to explode, Sakura took a deep breath. _'What is wrong with me? It's only Naruto.' _But the little voice that had once been Inner Sakura whispered that she wasn't in love with Naruto before. Steeling her will, she turned to face him and before she could have second thoughts, seized his head and kissed him.

To Naruto, it was like a dream. First, Sakura offered to pay for ramen. Then she asked how he felt about her. And then she KISSED him! _Sakura _kissed him. He couldn't believe it. She pulled away and searched his stunned eyes. Gathering her courage, she swiveled in her barstool and taking a deep breath blurted "I love you Naruto."

Four words he had always hoped for, but after years of Sakura rejecting his every advance, he had come to accept that those words were something he would never hear from her lips, and that the best he could have was her friendship. Teuchi and Ayame discreetly excused themselves to the back of their stand, peeking around the corner. Naruto sat there, frozen like a cow looking at an oncoming train, frantically trying to process Sakura's statement, beef ramen completely forgotten.

"What about Sasuke?"

"Sasuke... He has put me through too much for me to ever love him." Hesitantly, he reached for Saskura's hand, fearing that this was all some horribly misguided prank, and any second now she would burst out laughing.

"I realize that I was not a nice person, no, I was a horrible person to you Naruto, but I hope you can forgive me." She tightened her grip on Naruto's hand, ducking her gaze, fearing to look him in the eye. She nearly started when she felt his callused fingers ever so gently gripping her chin, as if she was a delicate pocelain doll that would break at the slightest pressure. Slowly he turned her face back towards him, close enough that Sakura could feel his breath. Slowly, ever so slowly he leaned in and pressed his lips to hers.

This was a different kiss entirely. Her first kiss had been a look-at-me kiss, all force and no finesse. But this time she let herself linger, tasting his lips, feeling the coarse skin around them. When he pulled back, his cerulean gaze boring into her emerald eyes, and he knew it was true.

Abruptly realizing where he was, blood rushed to his face, setting his cheeks a rosy hue that could rival Hinata at her worst. Naruto tore his gaze away from Sakura, peering into the depths of his ramen, like a man hoping to divine deep secrets. Sakura blushed faintly and smiled lightly. She nodded in appreciation to the Ichirakus, who were now returning to the bar. Ayame gave her a devious glance and a wink she would have expected from Jiraya-sama or Tsunade-shishou. Naruto ordered another four bowls of ramen, setting forth like a man on his last meal, while Sakura sipped at her broth. Almost reluctantly Naruto paid for their dinner, and hesitantly took her hand.

Walking her back to her house, he felt like he was going to float right off into the sky. She gave him a chaste kiss as she opened the door and slipped into it. Naruto spent several hours wandering Konoha that night. Oh, how he had missed it so. He could see Tsunada's face carved into the Hokage Stone to the right and a little above the Yondaime's face. But his mind kept reverting to Sakura and her kiss.

Sakura for her part, leaned against the door, breathing deeply, trying to control her racing heart. Her mother walked into the foyer and saw her daughter leaning up against the door. "Is anything wrong Sakura-chan?"

Smiling to herself, she shook her head and went up to her room to clean up. A nice hot bath and a good night's sleep was just what the doctor ordered.

_--End flashback--_

A messenger hawk rapped sharply on the window pane of Naruto's apartment. Surprisingly, it was Naruto who jerked up sharply, while Sakura rolled over and mumbled in her sleep. Padding over in his bare feet, orange sleep pants, and a cat nightcap, the opened the document case on its back and withdrew the paper inside. Scanning it quickly, he smiled and hurried to wake Sakura. She was wearing some of Naruto's old sleep clothes, while they didn't fit him anymore, were her size, more or less.

Naruto went into the living room/kitchenette so that she could shower and change while he prepared breakfast. Sakura stayed over at Naruto's often enough that it had become more feasible for her to keep a couple changes of clothes over at his place, rather than having to run home for a fresh set every time, much to her parents consternation. When she came out of the bedroom, she was dressed in her usual attire, red sleeveless vest with the white circle Haruno crest on the back exposing the Konoha insignia inked on her left shoulder, signifying her status as an ANBU operative, black biking shorts with a pink skirt slit up the side, black hose that extended to just below the knee and black ninja sandals. She tied back her shoulder length hair with a hairband, and the tied her hitai-ate over it. She pulled her elbow pads over her hands, (pink of course) and tightened her gloves. They weren't going out on a mission so she left the bindings and weapon pouch on the dresser.

Naruto had discarded his orange pants, for a pair of orange and black pants that ended mid-shin, blue sandals, black tee shirt, hitai-ate on his forehead. The healing crystal Tsunade had given him upon mastering the Rasengan, one of two necklaces he now wore, hung on the outside of his shirt. Naruto was far more muscular than anyone would really suspect. The jacket he always wore disguised his phisique handily, so she always liked it when he left it off.

Naruto slid the window open and looked back when Sakura sighed. "Why do you always use the window? Is your door broken?"

"No, but its more ninja-like than using a door." Sakura merely sighed again, and followed him out to the Hokage's palace. Naruto would always be Naruto, no matter how old he was. When they arrived Tsunade was there, looking hung over. Sensing her mistress' condition, she slapped a hand over Naruto's mouth before he could shout his greeting. Tsunade looked up and smiled tiredly, wordlessly thanking Sakura.

"So what's up Tsunada-obaa-chan?"

"The client has mailed us back saying that he will be sending a representative from England to meet with us today to discuss the mission. In fact, I believe she is here," Tsunada finished as a silver tabby cat strolled in the open doorway and past the two gaping ninja with the poise, grace, and absolute indifference to everything that only cats and Uchiha Sasuke can manage.

While the pair was still gawping, the tabby turned to face them after brushing the desk leg once and dissolved. Instead of being whisked away on the wind, flecks of light and shadow merged with each other to form a woman. Dressed in green robes, a wizards hat perched on her head at an angle, and a pair of square reading glasses clinging to the end of her nose, to Naruto's mind, she looked more teacher-like than any teacher he had ever met. Bowing briefly first to Tsunade, then to the the gaping teens, she introduced herself in textbook perfect Japanese.

"Hello. My name is Minerva McGonagall. I am Deputy Headmistress Of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Unfortunately, Headmaster Dumbledore had some pressing business elsewhere, and could not make this meeting." Reaching into her robes, she withdrew a folded piece of parchment and handed it to Tsunada. "Here is an introduction and proof of identity." Tsunada examined the paper, turning it over, and letting Naruto and Sakura see that there was a sealing mark inscribed over the front. Satisfied that the paper wasn't booby trapped, the Hokage released the seal and scanned the contents. Satisfied at its authenticity, Tsunada nodded, and McGonagall turned to the waiting shinobi.

Scrutinizing them both carefully, Mcgonagall seemed to find no overt defect in either of them so she began speaking. "You have been hired for the next ten months to infiltrate Hogwarts in Scotland, disguising yourselves as ordinary wizards, to the aim of protecting Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, and Ronald Weasely." Here she paused, passing out photos. "You will take a Portkey, a magical means of long distance teleportation, to the Leaky Cauldron on August 20th, three days from now. I will meet you there and assist you in acquiring school supplies. Then you will go to Kings Cross Station, Platform Nine and Three Quarters on September 1st to board the Hogwarts Express. Once there, you will be given further instructions. Questions?"

"Yes, McGonagall-san. Will all mission-specific equipment be provided?" Sakura asked.

"Yes, including clothes."

"Clothes? What is wrong the clothes we are wearing now?" Naruto interjected.

"Nothing is wrong with them, its just that they are a bit... unusual for England. Think of the new clothes as camouflage."

"Oh, okay then. Thats alright I guess." Mollified, Naruto folded his arms and frowned at the elderly Englishwoman.

Reaching into her robe again she withdrew six 9x12 brown envelopes sealed with a brad holding them closed. They unbent the brad and flipped the flap up and withdrew the contents.

"Each of those folders is a detailed dossier on Harry Potter and his two friends, Hermione Granger and Ronald Weasely."

Inspecting Grangers file he whistled. "Hey Sakura, take a look at Granger. Looks to be a real brainiac. You should get on well with her." Tsunada merely let her head sink into her hands as Sakura gave Naruto a lump the size of an egg on his head. She sometime thought to herself that Naruto was proof that there was a God, and he did favor fools and children, as nothing else could account for Naruto's longevity despite the fact that he had zero survival sense.

Looking up from the envelopes, Naruto spoke up. "Hey, uh, McGonagall-san, how are we supposed to communicate with anyone in England? We dont know English."

"That is not a problem. I can cast a translation spell on some personal effect, and while you are wearing it, concentrate slightly, and whoever listens will hear English, and vice-versa."

"What about written English? Can you ensorcell us to write English also, because of we are going as students, we will probably have to do homework."

"The translation spell will convert anything, written or spoken, from Japanese to English, and English to Japanese."

Sakura and Naruto exchanged glances and removed their necklaces. Sakura had bought them a year after Naruto's return, on the anniversary of their first date, from an expensive jeweler. Each one wore one half of the swirly Konoha insignia, engraved with a picture on the opposite side. Sakura's necklace had a fox face on hers, and Naruto had a series of sakura petals that seemed to be floating on the wind on his.

These were not any ordinary necklaces though. Each necklace had a bit of the others chakra channeled into it. The chakra attuned each necklace to the life force of the owners chakra. Normally the engraved impressions of the Konoha insignia and the fox face and sakura petals were green. But when the person was in danger it changed to pink, deepening to red if seriously wounded and black if dead. Additionally, the necklaces had ben enchanted to heat to match, growing warmer the more danger the person was in, and abruptly turning ice-cold upon death. The two slivers of steel had appealed to Sakura's sense of concern for her brash boyfriend, easing her worrying for Naruto when they were assigned seperate missions, knowing that she could always know exactly waht condition the bull-headed blonde was in.

Eying the jewelry curiously, she held the two bits of steel in her palm and withdrew a long slender piece of wood. Muttering something under her breath, she tapped each one and handed them back. Naruto inspected his carefully before putting it back on, making sure it wasn't damaged. After all, it was a gift from his Sakura-chan.

"One last thing McGonagall-san. We are to be attending a wizards school, but we cannot perform magic. And what about wands?" Sakura queried.

"Well, yes. Admittedly that is the weak point behind this whole operation. However, you will taken to be fitted for wands, and in the likely event that you cannot actually use magic, well, we thought that you would be able to use your jutsus to mimic actual wizardry. I believe you have something you call genjutsu, that you use to create visions and hallucinations."

"Thats right. I am extremely proficient in the use of genjutsu, but Naruto's specialty is in taijutsu and ninjutsu."

"Hm, that is a problem. Could you cast a genjutsu on him?"

"I could, but that would require that we have all the same classes together. A genjutsu has to be constantly maintained, it can't be cast and forgotten like a spell."

"Well, that shouldn't be too much of a problem. You two will both be sharing the same schedule with Potter-san anyways, with the exception of two classes, and Divination and Care for Magical Creatures require no wand-work."

Looking at the clock sitting over the doorway, "If that is all, McGonagall-san, Naruto, Sakura-chan?" Tsunade looked to all three, when each gave a negative, the two ANBU operatives ran to the window an leaped out. Not having seen their entrance, McGonagall arched an eyebrow. "Do they always use the window?"

Snickering, she responded, "He does seem to have a thing against doors. Naruto seems to think that using a window is more ninja-ish than using a door. I think he picked it up from Kakashi, their teacher."

"Ah. I see. You know how to contact me if the need arises." The Hokage nodded, and looked to Shikamaru, her spymaster, entering just as McGonagall left.

"I have secured a source in Akatsuke that says they are..." The voice faded as Professor McGonagall strode down the hall, towards the room that had been set up to receive her portkey. As she felt the familiar tug of an invisible hook yank her navel, she mused at the strangeness of the secret shinobi.

* * *

**Naruto's Apartment**

Sakura and Naruto raced through Konoha on the roofs, avoiding ground-level traffic and leaping across alleyways and streets with ease born of years of practice. The civilian below ignored the flickering shapes flitting across the skyline. Already, Sakura was preparing a mental checklist of exactly what they needed to research, and how much supplies to buy. After all, if they were to be in a foreign, non-shinobi nation for ten months, they had to be sure that they had sufficient supplies to last the entire time. Her estimated costs were distressingly high, probably draining most of her reserve funds. However, the pay for such a mission should offset the cost for the most part.

Arriving at Naruto's apartment building, they alighted on the walkway in front of his door. Searching for the correct key, Naruto let the pair of them into his home. After tucking their shoes into the rack built into the wall, they entered the living room/kitchenette, to find someone already there, helping himself to Naruto's cache of instant ramen. Sakura had limited him to having ramen for no more than three meals a week, saying that he had to have more balenced meals to stay healthy, even with the youki of the Kyuubi no Kitsune there to maintain his health. In response, Naruto had constructed a secret compartment behind his pantry, filled wall to wall with instant ramen cups.

Hoping to divert his girlfriend's rising ire, Naruto turned to face the intruder. "Hey Sasuke, I didn't know you liked ramen." The ebon-haired man flicked a galnce in their direction before turning back to his meal.

"Well, I didn't feel like putting too much effort into my meal so I made some ramen."

With a glance that promised that they would discuss Naruto's illegal stockpile, Sakura turned to their fomer teammate. "What's going on Sasuke?"

"I heard that you two are going on a mission next month." He didn't have to add the words 'without me' to the end.

"Unfortunately so. Tsunade-obaa-chan said that we are going to some place called Scotland for the next year or so." That caught the Uchiha's attention. When Naruto, Sakura and Sai had captured him and brought him back to Konoha, he had been stripped of his shinobi status, and shadowed by half a dozen ANBU at all times, when he was not in the company of his former teammates. This was going to be troublesome. Shaking his head, he ended that train of thought before he started to sound too much like Nara Shikamaru.

"What is the mission?" He had attempted to sound disinterested, but when he saw Naruto's mouth widen into a grin he knew he had failed. Sometimes it sucked to have teammates as close as they were.

"We gotta babysit some kids in a wizarding school there." Naruto didn't sound best pleased by the mission objectives. On the other hand, Team Seven's escort missions often ended in fighting, the mission guarding Tazuna the bridge builder to Nami no Kuni (Land of Waves) and the escorting that caravan to Tsuchi no Kuni (Land of Earth) despite the tensions between the two hidden villages.

Naruto formed half a dozen Kage Bunshin before he thought about it and they were all choking on the summoning smoke until one of the bunshin managed to open a window and cast a minor fuuton jutsu to clear the smoke. Sakura had her bag slung over a shoulder and gestured for the bunshin to follow her. Each of the clones gave the orginal a sour look as they filed out, knowing the ordeal that was ahead of them. One or two considered dispelling themselves right then, but dismissed the notion soon after, knowing that Sakura really would need their help to gather all of the requisite information.

Sasuke and Naruto spent the rest of the day just lounging around Naruo's cramped apartment, attempting to sneak out to Ichiraku's for lunch. However, Sakura was already there to head them off. Instead, the trio ended up eating at the barbeque restaurant that Sarutobi Asuma used to frequent before his death.

Naruto pondered the information his Kage Bunshin had imparted to him when they dispelled themselves. Sauke sat in the corner staring out the window, silent. So it fell to Sakura's shoulders to carry most of the conversation between the three of them, something she was not terribly used to, Naruto being Naruto.

When they cleaned their plates the three split up, Sasuke going back to the Uchiha compound, and Sakura drapping a grumbling Naruto back to the Archive. Naruto made three more Kage Bunshin and loaded them all down with an impressive pile of books. Back at his apartment, Sakura divided up the labor, assigning him the majority of the reading material, reasoning that he can create a Kage Bunshin to read each book. Naruto understood, but that didn't preclude him from groaning about it.

The next month passed by quickly, and almost before they knew it, August 20th had arrived. Naruto was in the middle of his bedroom, tearing it apart in an effort to locate all his equipment. So far he had one weapon pouch of three, his chest plate, mail shirt, and his weapon maintenance kit, comprised of an oilstone for his ninjato, oilrags for polishing his shuriken and kunai, and diamond dust, to preserve the edge. Sakura sat on the middle of his bed, reading the dossiers of the three students, occasionally switching to another folder to cross reference something. Sakura completely ignored Naruto, except to lean back to avoid the occasional random flying object. When she had first starting dating him, she had attempted to get Naruto into the habit of cleaning and organizing his apartment more often, but that never lasted more than several hours, maybe a day max, because even if it was organized, he still couldn't find anything, as he couldn't remember where he had put it. The one thing she had managed to get him to do however, was at least keep track of his ninjato and mask. After Tsunada complained about him requesting a _fifth _replacement mask, when he had stepped on his under a pile of clothes and broken it, Sakura had intervened. Now they were kept on a somewhat crooked shelf above the headboard of his bed, both within easy reach.

The ANBU masks appeared to be simple pieces of decorated porcelain, but in reality, they were much more. While they were porcelain, they had been crafted with a hair-fine network of material that blocked chakra, _mukankaku _fiber. It negated the effects of genjutsu, and prevented onyone from using any justus to peer past the mask and see the ANBU operative's true identity. It also limited the utility of straight out ninjutsu on the head of ninja, although it was just as weak as regular porcelain when subjected to physical abuse. The _mukankaku _fiber wasn't cheap either. The fiber was exceedingly delicate, and grew only in the Land of Snow, requiring an extended season of cold followed by a brief period of warmth to grow.

Having finally located all his gear, Naruto clambered onto his bed beside Sakura. He had been over to Sakura's house once. It had been everything he had expected. Sakura was the only one of the Rookie Nine to be born to non-shinobi parents. As such, she was far more organized than Naruto. Looking up from the data files to the clock that Naruto had inexplicably decided to attach to his ceiling, she nudged her ANBU partner, jerking him out of whatever daydream he had been imagining. Naruto slid his backpack on and tied his ANBU mask on. Then he took his ninjato and slid it down his spine, into a slit along the back of the backpack. Judging from the scabbard, his ninjato appeared to be a tachi, single edged, slightly curved blade approximately thirty inches long. In reality, it was a shorter katana, about four inches shorter than it appeared to be. This was trick, designed to mislead an opponent into believing that it would take a second or two longer to draw than it actually would. And in a swordfight, a second or two was a long time. Plus, one could stick all kinds of nasty surprises in that extra four inches of empty scabbard.

He had all his equipment in it, including his ANBU uniform, which consisted mainly of a black shirt and pants, sleeves removed to show the Konoha swirl insignia inked on their shoulders, and armor. They would have to be careful to keep the tattoos covered, as Konoha was not exactly unknown in Europe, if one of the more knowledgable students at Hogwarts were to recognize it for what it was, that could lead to uncomfortable questions.

Naruto and Sakura had spent most of the morning packing for the mission, and spent the rest of the day, saying goodbye to their friends. Naruto had dropped by the Academy to talk to Iruka, his first sensei, for a while. Shikamaru was his usual apathetic self, working his way through his third cigarette pack of the day, something he had picked up after his sensei had been murdered by the Akatsuke Hidan.

Sakura, for her part went to see how Hinata was in the Hyuuga complex. She had been training with Yuuhi Kurenai, but when Sakura that she and Naruto were going on an extended mission, she halted her training for an hour to chat with Sakura. Then she dropped by the flower arranging store that was owned by the Yamanakas. Ino was there and they took an extended lunch to just have girl talk.

Sakura had returned home to tell her parents that she was going on a long term mission the previous evening, and was going to be away for about a year. Her parents were aware that this would have happened eventually, since she was a shinobi, and even more so since she had graduated to ANBU. They took their daughter out to dinner at restaurant, using their last evening together for the next year to full advantage. She stepped in to giver her parents a last minute hug goodbye, then leaped up to the neighbors roof from the porch.

The pair regrouped at Naruto's apartment, gathering their assorted ninja equipment, leaped out the window. Naruto and Sakura leaped from roof to roof across town to the Hokage's office on the top floor of the headquarters in the velvet night. Hurtling in through the eternally open window, Sakura noticed the pitcher of what most likely was sake standing on her teachers desk, conspicuously empty of paperwork. Tsunada was in the process of refilling her cup with the rice liquor. Sakura was relieved to see that it was only her first pitcher of the night, and looked to still be a third full.

Smiling wryly, Tsunada answered Sakura's unasked question._ "Yes, I know, I am starting rather late. It would be bad form for me to be passed out on the desk when you had to leave." _Rummaging through her desk, she finally located a silvery piece of metal. She handed it across the desk for the ninja's inspection.

It was a piece of steel a foot in diameter and about a half inch thick cut in the shape of the leaf insignia, inscribed with the spiral. There seemed to be a faintly foreign and unfamiliar tingle of energy to it. Intrigued, Naruto passed it to Sakura, looking to the Hokage, a perplexed expression on his face. _"What is it Tsunada-obaa-chan?"_

If there was one positive thing that came of Naruto's ANBU training, it was that he was no longer the completely oblivious, blundering powerhouse he had been. Now he was merely a partially oblivious, blundering powerhouse. He had admitted that not having to rely on the others of his team for information was a very good thing indeed.

_"That, Naruto, is a Portkey. That is how you will be traveling to England. It is scheduled to leave at 11:00 p.m. You seem to have arrived just in time. The Portkey will arrive in a pub in civilian London at approximately 3:00 p.m. local. You will then proceed to Diagon Alley to purchase your school supplies. Accompanying you will be the Hogwarts groundskeeper, Rubeus Hagrid. Show him your ANBU masks to confirm your identities. So far, only four Hogwarts staff members will know your true affiliation, being the client, Albus Dumbledore, Minervra McGonagall, the Potions Master, Severus Snape, and of course Hagrid. You are allowed to have a pet at the school, so I suggest one of you buys an owl, to communicate privately._

_"I am told by the client that the government there, the Ministry of Magic, is expected to attempt to interfere at the school in some way. Under no circumstances are you two to arouse any undue suspicion by any such person."_

When the pair nodded, Tsunada waving at the leaf insignia portkey as it issued a single clear musical chime. _"I believe that means that its about to leave. Good luck and Godspeed." _That was the last Sakura and Naruto heard as they held the piece of metal, abruptly feeling an uncomfortable tug from behind their navel. Tsunada stared at the spot that until just a moment prior had beem occupied with two of the four most important people in her life. _'Be careful and stay safe you two,' _she thought.

* * *

**The Leaky Cauldron's Portkey room, London England, August 20th, 3:07 p.m.**

The two ninja were buffeted by the kinds of winds you feel when traveling at ridiculously high speeds. Abruptly the disorienting blur of color solidified as the Portkey arrived at its destination, its depositing it passengers three feet above the floor. Fortunately, someone seemed to have the foresight to have padded the room thoroughly. In fact the only thing that told them where the door was, was two words painted in flaking blue paint, "Door" and "Push." The translation spell that the Deputy Headmistress had cast on their necklaces worked for the written language as well as the spoken. When they opened the door, there was another arrow, this time in a virulent green, pointing down the hall. The hall led to a short staircase, which in turn led to the common area of the pub. Hoisting their backpacks, Naruto was suddenly uncomfortably aware that there was a sword hilt sticking up above his head for all to see. However, the patrons of the Cauldron were absorbed in their own matters, and none looked up to inspect the new arrivals.

Sakura forged ahead to the bar, and a man standing behind it, cleaning a mug. As they drew near, the bartender looked up and smiled. "Ah, you must be the new foreign students. My name is Tom. I assume you are here for rooms?"

Sakura nodded and offered the portkey to the innkeeper. "I'm Haruno Sakura. This is Uzumaki Naruto. Hogwarts should have paid for our room and board for ten days."

"Ah, yes. The Headmaster had paid for everything. Retrieving a pair of keys, from the board behind him, he walked out from behind the bar and started up the stairs. Sakura caught up to him, catching a shoulder, and bringing him to a halt. Tom stopped abruptly. The young foreigner was a lot stronger than she looked. "Excuse me, but could my friend and I share a room?" At Tom's frown, Sakura added hastily, "it's not that we would do anything improper, just that we are used to rooming together."

"If its money you are concerned about, you have no need. There is enough to pay for two separate rooms the whole time."

"Really, it's not that. I'm believe you about the money."

"Well okay, I suppose, if that's what you really want." When they both nodded, he took the lead again and walked down he hall. Stopping at a doorway, he put one of the keys in his pocket and tapped the other with his wand. Inserting the magicked key, he twisted it, and the door swung open. It was a comfortable, if a bit small room. The door opened into the center of the room, facing a nightstand. Standing slightly away from the nightstand, were two beds, with an uncomfortable-looking number of comforters. At the foot of the bed, spaced far enough away that if the person occupying the bed got out on the wall side they could get by easily were two short dressers. The entire room was paneled in aging, but well cared for Japanese maple.

"If you could excuse me for a moment, I will retrieve your packages." Before either could object, the innkeeper vanished. Two minutes later Tom returned, floating two rather large paper wrapped packages behind him. Examining the script on the top, he pointed his wand, which was trained on the floating parcels pointed first to one bed, then the other. "If you need me for anything, I will be downstairs." With out another word, he turned on his heel and departed.

_"Do you think we offended him, asking to share one room?" _Sakura closed the door and walked over to the bed that Naruto had not occupied.

_"How should I know Sakura? Hey look at our clothes!" _Sure enough, Naruto had decended upon the paper-wrapped bundle and promptly shredded it. Their new clothes seemed to consist mostly of baggy pants with lots of large pockets. And loose long sleeved shirts. Sakura's shirts were split equally between, tight, form fitting shirts with a variety of logos splashed across the front and looser, undecorated tops, both kinds in short and long sleeves.

Naruto had several plain and striped long sleeved, button down shirts, a pair of back muscle shirts, which Sakura thought would look especially good on his lean muscled frame, and loose tee shirts.

The most surprising article both recieved was a pair of leather greatcoats, Naruto's in black, and Sakura's in pink. Upon closer inspection, it turned out that there were a great many pockets sewn to the inside leather, ranging from pockets that would hold an average wallet at arm height, to great voids that contain the largest of the Academy textbooks easily.

Sakura slipped hers on, and buttoned it up. _"Hey, Naruto, what do you think of my coat," _she inquired, twirling.

_"Not bad Sakura-chan. I wonder where they found pink leather?" _

_"Maybe they colored it with magic." _Naruto was still examining his, turning it over in his hands. Walking over, she asked what was wrong with his coat.

_"Oh, nothing really." _With that he slipped it on, and buttoned it up. _"Hmm, I think they got my size wrong, it's a bit big."_

Sakura instead told him to take it off for a moment. Draping it over one arm, she handed him his ninjato. He strapped it on, used by now to her noticing things he didn't. When he put his coat on again, this time over the sword, it fit better. The leather had been slit across the shoulders, so that he could draw his sword in his coat. However, when Sakura adjusted the coat, smoothing it across Naruto's shoulders, the black hilt of the sword disappeared. Holding a hand over where the invisible hilt was, she picked up a cold, thrumming energy. Examining the coat closer, she felt the same energy woven into the leather.

Frowning, she felt her own coat and felt a weaker thrum of power inside her coat too, subtle enough to escape her senses at first.

_"Hey, this is really cool. I think I like this coat a lot." _

_"Yeah, I know what you mean. You notice that most of our clothes are very loose, and our new pants have lots of pockets? Convenient for hiding kunai and shuriken, dont you think? They even enchanted our coats, for some reason. Well, it hides your sword hilt, but I cant tell what mie does."_ Naruto smiled widely and nodded his assent. _"I think we should get dressed and go down to the main room. Hagrid-san will probably be here before long." _Naruto froze, absorbed in Sakura's rapidly increasing amounts of exposed flesh. As she started to unbutton her vest, she paused, a very Sakura-like smirk spreading across her heart-shaped face. _"Anything you get to see, I get to watch also." _

Naruto was distintly aware of a Kyuubi-chakra-red wave setting his face aflame. _'Good God, Naruto, get a hold of yourself. You have been dating her close to two years now. You even share the same bed from time to time, you've seen her in her panties and bra, what is wrong with you?' _The problem, he was aware, was the tone she had said it in. He knew that she had been trained in seduction, so why did it surprise him that she could act this way? _'Because she's never directed it at you, that's why,' _the little inner voice snickered. He would have said that it was the Kyuubi, if he hadn't known better. But he was always aware when the Kyuubi was actively observing him, and he sensed the demon occupying his soul slumbering at the moment.

_"Thats fine with me," _the tide of bloated blood vessels coloring his face giving him the lie. Sakura smiled sweetly, as if she had sensed the entire exchance with his inner self. Unbuttoning her vest she took it off, neatly folding it up and laying it on the bed. The skirt and leotard pants followed next. Before he had dated Sakura, he had imagined that the kunoichi usually wore filmy bits of nothing to cover her naughty parts. But the first time she had slept over at his place she had nearly had a heart attack at his surprise. Her bra and underwear were actually rather decent for underclothes. Both were sewn of rather thick, in his opinion, linen.

Digging through her new wardrobe, she selected a pair of blue pants, made of a rather rugged seeming cloth. The pants fitted rather low on her waist, looking that she had to just twist her hips right, and the low slung pants would be no slung pants. To remedy this, she retrieved a leather belt, studded with dull metal spikes. Examining the belt carefully, she threaded it throught the belt loops and cinched it tight on her waist. She actually selected one of Naruto's button down shirts to wear. The sleeves were about two inches too long so she rolled them up, baring her forearms. Her bust filled out the chest nicely, although, even buttoned up all the way, exposed a rather pleasing expanse of pink flesh. Reaching into the pile of discarded cloth Sakura retrieved a pair of gloves. Slipping them on, a thin metal plate rested across her knuckles and back of her palm. Unfortunately, the Konoha insignia was engraved into the steel, so she taped a patch to blue cloth matching the color of the gloves perfectly and covered the plates. Now they looked nothing more than simple fashion accessory. Lastly she reached up and untied her hitai-ate, wrapping the metal plate up in the cloth ties.

Winking at Naruto, she nodded towards his pile of clothes, wordlessly telling him that it was his turn. Grinning, he took off his sword, and hung it on one of the clothes pegs on his side of the room. Grabbing the hem of his skintight black shortsleeved shirt, he drew it up over his head. The moment his eyes were obscured by the black cloth her eyes were inexorably drawn to the increasing area of bared skin. His body swayed as he got the shirt up over his elbows. She drank the sight of him up like a woman dying of thirst. While no one would call Naruto buff, he was more muscular than average.

Sakura followed each muscle shifting beneath his skin, and the _Shishou Fuuin_(Four Image Seal) seal mark on his stomach. She could watch the interplay between the dozens of muscles that was his stomach for days on end. Finally Naruto drew back the black cloth to reveal his chest. She never ceased to love how his pecs, which might be rather small on a larger man, were perfect, connecting to his shoulders in perfect harmony. Sakura didn't really pay much attention to his arms. She could admore them nearly anytime she wanted. He reached down and unzipped his pants.

Naruto was wearing boxer, as usual of course. She had once spoken, several years ago, without thinking in the presence of Ino-pig, wondering what kinds of underwear the male ninja wore. Things had rapidly declined from there, the pair recruiting Hinata and most of the genin kunoichi into a club devoted to men's underwear.

Sakura let her gaze focus on his quads, watching them flex mightily as Naruto stepped aside, leaving them laying on the floor, normally something that would upset her. But she was too busy examining his calves, for no other male could possibly have such perfectly toned legs.

Naruto dug into the pile of clothes sending the room into exponentally expanding messiness. It must have had something to do with the Kyuubi within him, for she knew not of a single male that could compete with Naruto's ability.

Withdrawing a pair of blue pants very similar to the pair that she was wearing, she buttoned and zipped them up, drawing a blue tee shirt with a large WS printed aross the chest. The show over, she went to her pile of personal efects and started withdrawing weapons. She retrieved two eight or nine inch combat knives and whirled them around for a moment, weaving them around her fingers, slapping the back of her palms and settling him her palms perfectly. She slipping one into each boot, steel toed, reaching halfway to the knee. Sakura then took two six inch kunai throwing knive, sheathing the sharp steel in little leather pockets and hiding them in the waistband of her pants, sitting next to her skin. Finally Sakura wound a strip of cloth around her stomach, approximately thirty, six inch shuriken attached with double sticky tape. Well, except for a single kunai she hid in her cleavage, the blade sheathed in a leather pocket like the others. Picking her cat decorated ANBU mask up, whe placed hit in one of her many voluminous pants pockets. She snatched his off the bed, where it had been partially obscured by a shirt. He snagged it and made it dissapear in his volminuous coat.

Naruto imitated his kunoichi, hiding two combat knives in his boots. He picked up a weapon pouch and withdrew the shuriken and kunai in it. Biting his thumb, he dabbed each seal on his wrists with a bit of blood, sealing shuriken on his left wrist, and kunai on his right. He put the few remaining ninja tools away when the glowing seals changed from blue to red, signalling that they were full. Naruto had learned a lot during his three year training trip with Jiraiya, one of the things having learned was a great proficency with using seals. Naruto could, with enough time, create a seal to do just about anything. In fact, he had tattooed two seals on his wrists, storage seals, that when dabbed with a bit of blood would produce about thirty shuriken on one, and twenty kunai on the other. It had taken him over a uear and a half to perfect these particular seals. As long as the blood was fresh on the seals, all he had to do was do a throwing motion, and one shuriken would release, cutting it deadly way to his opponant. Jiraya had been flabbergasted the first time Naruto had demonstrated his custom seals, and got mad when he wouldn't share.

He had wanted to try to create a seal to hold his sword also, but apparently there was a very limited number of seals one could place on a body before the started interfering with one another. Something about the chakra potency of the blood. After strapping on his ninjato, he drew on his greatcoat, letting Sakura adjust it so that it was concealing his sword properly and smooth it over his shoulders. When Sakura had gotten her pink coat on, Naruto examined her with a critical eye.

_"You know I never though I would say it, but you look a damned sight sexier in these wizard clothes than in your iryo-nin outfit."_

_"Much the same to you Naruto. I never really thought you looked that good in orange."_

_"What's wrong with orange? It's my favorite color."_

_"There's nothing wrong with orange, just orange on you. I always thought you looked better in black or blue."_

Naruto had wrapped an arm around Sakura's waist, drawing her down the stairs while discussing Naruto's choice in color. Naruto had halted at the bottom of the stairs. Sakura tore her gaze from Naruto to what had caught her attention. She had never seen a man so large as this person was. He wasn't merely large, he was huge, probably closer to eight feet than seven. He also had the most unruly beard she had ever had ever encountered. This trip was already providing plenty of story material, she thought.

* * *

The giant of a man drew close to the pair, grunting at them "Yeh the Japs Dumbledore hired?" Naruto's mouth twisted sourly at being referred to as a "Jap," but reached into his coat with his freehand, the one that wasn't around Sakura's waist, and withdrew his ANBU mask. When the giant had seen both, he heaved a grunt of acknowledgement and introduced himself as Rubeus Hagrid, although the were to refer to him as Hagrid. Looking to one another, they exchanged a look of bemusement and followed the groundskeeper out a rear door. Smiling whimsically at the pink umbrella that Hagrid withdrew, Sakura took note of the what bricks in what order he tapped to gain entrance to Diagon Alley.

The sight that greeted the ninja couple was something of a surprise. The High Street was rather empty for an area supposedly being the British Wizarding community's centralmost economic hub. "An' this is Diagon Alley. There ain't nuhthin yeh can't find here, if yeh look in the right spot."

"It looks rather deserted Hagrid-san. Has some kind of emergency occured recently?" Sakura queried the man.

"Eh, wha? What'd yeh call me?

"Err, it's a Japanese thing. Instead of putting mister before a name we put san after," Naruto elucidated.

"Er, nuthin really. It gets a lot more crowded in another week or so. Yeh just missed the school rush. Yeh don' have any money do yeh?" When the couple gave a negative, Hagrid grunted as if he really hadn't expected otherwise. "Well we will hafta go teh Gringotts then first." Striding towards a white building on the other end of the street, he explained a little about Gringotts.

"Gringotts is the only bank in all of England, cuz the onleh creatures that can guard gold better than ah goblin is a dragon, and they usually aren't of the mind ter give it back." The line inside the back was short, so they had to only wait about five minutes before a goblin was ready to help them. After dumping about three pounds of scrap parchement, an extremely ruffled owl, two five gallon canisters of what was labelled "cabbage eating slug repellant," Hagrid finally found the appropriate key and handed it to the goblin. Squeezing into the cramped cart, they rapidly made their way to the vault and back. Hagrid handed them a hefty sack of coins.

"It's twenty-nine Knuts to the Sickle, and twenty Sickles to the Galleon. Got that? Okay. Now its time to do your shopping."

At Flourish & Blotts bookstore, they acquired the schoolbooks for the fifth year curriculum. The next stop was the Cauldron Shop, where they got their trunks, a larger then usual version than most sutdents got, due to them having to store all their ninja equipment as well as bookbags and Potions ingrediants next door at the apothecary. At the Magical Menagerie Naruto acquired a large black owl, who he promptly dubbed Sasuke-teme, in honor of their absent comrade. And that it would no doubt irritate the stolid Uchiha to discover that he had an owl named after him. Sakura bought herself an orange and white tabby she called Tora (tiger) after his coloration. Madame Malkin fitted the ninja for their school robes chattering away happily, either ignoring or completely missing the sword wrapped up in Naruto's coat. They loaded the robes into the rolling travel trunks and left. Finally was Ollivanders.

The duo could sense the cold, flowing power that they had come to associate with wizard magic. The door chimed as it opened, alerting the shops proprietor to the arrival of potential customers. Ollivander was an elderly, wild hair wizard with protuberant silver eyes.

"Hello, I'm Sakura Haruno, and this is Naruto Uzumaki. We are foreign exchange students from Japan. We need a new pair of wands," Sakura stepped forward, introducing themselves in their undercover roles.

"No you're not."

"Um, excuse me? We aren't what?"

"You aren't wizards. You're shinobi. Your power is too warm to be wizards." Seeing he had only confused them, the wand-maker continued. "Wizards power is drawn from the surrounding environment, so our magic has a cool feel to it. However, your chakra is drawn from within yourselves, and therefore has a warmer feel to it."

Cautiously, Sakura probed him. Naruto stood back and let her take charge. If this was anyones field of expertise, Sakura would definately be better suited to handling the situation for the moment. If things turned sour, and they required an immediate extraction, he would step in.

"How can you feel the chakra on us? Can any wizard do this?" The startling ease with which Ollivander had detected the lie could be bad if this was a common ability.

"Oh, no I would think not. I was hired sixty years ago to design the masks that your black ops section uses. I was also a regular correspondant with your late Sandaime Hokage."

Abandoning all pretense, Sakura charged in, "Ollivander-san, can we trust you?"

Ollivander smiled faintly. "If it concerns Harry Potter, as I believe it will, yes."

"We were hired by the Headmaster of Hogwarts to infiltrate the school, posing as students. But to do that sucessfully, we need wands. We are aware that wands are extremely valuable. Therefore, do you have anything that would look like a wand, but not actually be a wand?"

Ollivander pondered this for a moment, before thinking of a solution. "How about I give you a pair of uncompleted wands, wands that have not had their core inserted?"

"That would be satisfactory." Holding up a hand telling them to wait a moment, he returned a moment later. Handing the first to Naruto, he said "Thirteen inches, white oak, was going to put in a dragons heartstring. Exceptional strength, but not great control. Good dueling wand." He proffered the second wand to Sakura. "Ten inches, willow wood, with a unicorns hair as the core. Average strength, but nearly unsurpassed control. Good for Charms work and Transfiguration." Hagrid had remained standing the whole time, not wishing a repeat of the last time he was in Ollivanders shop.

Having finished shopping, they made their way back the the Leaky Cauldron, the trio stepped through the magical arch of folding bricks before it closed behind them.

"Alrigh', well here's where I leave. I'll be back in a coupla days to see how yeh are doin'. Tell Tom anythin yeh need, he has instructions from Dumbledore to give yeh anythin' yeh need."

Turning away from the ninja, he strode to the door. Stopping abruptly, he turned back, looking like he had forgotten something. "Oh, I almos't fergot to tell yeh, a Ministry car will be by on the first to take yeh to Kings Cross Station." Bemused by their extremely large friends personality, they hefted their trunks over their shoulders and went to their room. Tucking their trunks away in a corner, Naruto flooped down on his bed. Looking over to the large pile of comforters at the foot of the bed, he said "how cold do you think it gets here if we need that many blankets at night?"

"Probably. England is a lot farther north than Konoha is." Naruto just shuddered. "Anyways, lets go over the dossiers McGonagall-sensei provided for us again."

"Naruto bounced from his bed over to hers, landing in a great heap. Sakura ignored him. She took out the tan envelopes and spread the contents across the sheet. There was a Wizarding photo of each student, smiling and waving. The first page told the pair of shinobi the age and physical characteristics of their targets. The next page told of their school history, classes and grades they had taken. The third page listed hobbies and noticable habits that the three had, such as Hermione's preference to seclude herself in the library to do homework, and Harry's frequent nightime explorations with his fathers Invisibility Cloak. Sakura paused over that. His ability to turn himself invisible with the cloak could prove to be troublesome.

"Well, its not like we dont have ways to tracking him even if he does leave with the cloak."

"True, but its going to be a lot harder to do it secretly."

The fourth page detailed Harry and Co. extra-curricular exploits, from Harry's rescue of the Philosophers Stone in his first year, to his extremely close encounter with Lord Voldemort at the end of the Triwizard Tournament earlier in the year.

* * *

**The Leaky Cauldron, August 27th, 12:30 p.m.**

The past couple of days had gone by surprisingly quickly. They had kept themselves busy, studying their textbooks, and learning all they could about Hogwarts. Well, it was mostly Sakura studying, and Naruto chatting with Tom and the other occupants of the Cauldron, only incidentally learning about Hogwarts.

The pair had just finished eating lunch in the inn's common room. Naruto took their dishes to the kitchen to be washed. When he returned Sakura smiled at him and gathered her belongings. They went back to their room and she carefully packed her books back into her trunk. Naruto sneaked a glance out the window in what he thought was a stealthy manner, but wasn't able to decieve Sakura. No matter how much training and experience Naruto got, he never could sit still for extended period of time, and he hadn't been able to leave the inn for over a day. He knew how important that kind of thing was, but he never could contain himself. Sakura didnt mind too much. After all, he wouldn't be the man she loved if he was any different. Double checking his wrist seals, he put his greatcoat on and motioned for his girlfriend to do the same. Sighing at his hopelessness, she did so, opening the window and letting Sasuke-teme out before they left.

Ducking out the back to the little courtyard that led to Diagon Alley, Sakura tapped the proper bricks, channeling a bit of chakra to her hands to power the magical archway. The couple strolled down the street, looking at all the shops and stalls, stopping by Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour to get a snack. Naruto bought some owl treats for Sasuke-teme that he had forgotten to get earlier at Eyelops Owl Emporium.

They passed a gaggle of kids staring worshipfully at a floating broom in the window of Quality Quidditch Supplies. A question to one of the kids told them that this was the new racing broom, the Firebolt. After that, they wandered back down to Magical Menagerie, just looking at the varied magical creatures available for sale.

After about three hours of just wandering around Diagon Alley, going in whatever shop happened to catch their interest Naruto was getting hungry. They had had a good British breakfast, but that had been at eight o'clock, and it was now edging on to four. As they headed back, they examined their purchases. Sakura had dipped into Flourish and Blotts again and had bought several large jars of ink. Two of them were color changing, shifting through the entire spectrum of colors as you wrote. The other five jars were a very unique kind of ink. You channeled a bit of your magic through the ink, and when you wrote with it, the ink turned invisible, until you activated it with a tap of the wand. A trial with a scap of parchement proved that it reacted with chakra just as well as magic.

Naruto quickly wolfed down his dinner and they headed back to their room for some more studying. Naruto jumped on his bed, working out excess energy from being cooped up for several days without being able to train at all. He fervently hoped that they would be able to find some way to train while at the school. He couldn't bear to think how out of shape he could get over ten months. Before he could depress himself further, he cut off that train of thought. So the next four days pased in much the same manner until September first arrived.

* * *

**A/N: **Okay, that was kinda long. At 11k words, this is the longest document I have written on yet. I doubt that future chapters will be as long as this one, so dont be disappointed when Chapter 2 is like half as long. Umm... I can't really think of much more to say except that when you review, I write, so more reviews get you quicker updates! OH! And this is completely un-beta-ed, so email or PM me if interested.


	2. Detention with Dolores

**A/N: **Well hello everyone. It's been a while. Unfortunately, being a senior in high school sucks, and have only recently been able to surface for air underneath the mountain of homework they have been assigning us. I have had to write at least eight ten page minimum papers over the past two weeks, and the other "normal" homework as well. Anyways I'm back now. For the moment at least, hehe.

HPRS 13 should be up in another week or so, provided I don't get buried by schoolwork again... knock on wood!

Now for some reviewer responses:

Grumpywinter: I know the fox mask is way overused, but that's because, wefll, if Naruto were to have a totem animal, it would be a fox, for obvious reasons. Sorry, it ain't gonna change. And where did you get that wolf-masked ANBU were the strongest? That's new to me... I'm not saying you're wrong, just that I have never heard that before.

Scione: No they won't be learning magic, as such. Sakura will be genjutsu-ing everyone so that it looks like they are doing it, but they wont.

Chris Redfield-General Chaos: I doubt that there will be any HP pairings here. Harry is still just friends with Ginny, and Ron and Hermione haven't realized that they like one another yet. As for Harry/Hermione, there are very few good H/Hr fics out there IMO. Besides, I don't think I could write H/Hr well enough to do it justice.

Rsfan: I don't think Harry and Co. will be learning nin/genjutsu, but they will learn some taijutsu, mostly to learn to fight on their feet, that kind of thing. They aren't gonna be supa-ninja-wizards. I leave that to my other story. Naruto and Sakura are the only ninja that will be appearing in this story as main characters. Others might appear in flashbacks, but that's it. I learned my lesson from HPRS in making too large a cast...

Judedeath: sorry no crossover pairings here, this firmly Naru/Saku

Also, there Naruto and Sakura aren't going to be using many Japanese flavor-words when speaking in English. The enchantment on their necklaces turn all their suffixes and such into the proper English title, if applicable.

Finally, send thanks to mangamaniacgurl, my new beta! She drew me a pretty accurate fanart of Naruto and Sakura an their Jpanese getup (although I'm not really sure she could be classified as a fan, more like a partner in crime...) check my profile for the link.

Chapter 2: Detention with Dolores

Tom had knocked on their door a few minutes prior to let them know that the Ministry car had arrived to take them to Kings Cross Station. Sakura had packed all of her belongings in her new travel trunk the night before. Predictably, Naruto hadn't. He had been scrambling for five minutes now, just throwing every possession he had haphazardly into his trunk, with no care for any kind of order. Once everything had been piled up in the trunk, he leaped on it, weighing the lid down and allowing him to latch the lock in place.

Hefting trunks over their shoulders, Naruto kicked the door open and walked out to the car. The driver offered to help them with their trunks, but looked surprised when both declined, even the girl. He wasn't being sexist or anything, but he was surprised that the pink haired girl, if anything, carried hers more easily than the guy did. He knew from experience that student's trunks could weigh a good bit, but he shrugged it off.

The trip to Kings Cross Station passed quickly enough, with the two teenagers talking quietly to one another in what the driver assumed to be Japanese. Naruto was staring out the window in amazement, childlike wonder suffusing his face at all the modern technology and buildings. Naruto had seen most before; it was just that Konohagakure was so small that no one needed a vehicle of any kind to get around. The trains elicited less amazement than the cars however, because he had used trains to get to a mission several times where time was of the essence and foot power was simply not sufficient.

Noting the crowds milling around the platforms, Sakura surmised that it would be pretty easy to just slip through the barrier between platforms nine and ten. The two just leaned against the brick pillar and... vanished. Naruto grinned when he saw the paint scheme of the Hogwarts Express, red and gold being the primary colors. Looking around, Naruto noticed that the platform was relatively empty, a bare handful of parents chatting with children inhabiting the platform.

"Let's just wait here for the principle to arrive, that way we don't risk choosing another compartment than they do."

"Good idea Sakura-chan. We can also take a rough head count of the students on the train." But as time progressed getting nearer to the departure point, Naruto quickly gave up hope on that: at a little over two hundred, he was less than halfway done. The nature of the shifting crowd also discouraged an accurate head count, because people were constantly moving and getting on and off the train. The platform, which he had thought to be rather appropriately sized, got extremely crowded for the few minutes immediately before the trains whistle, signaling that it was preparing to leave. Sakura tapped his shoulder, pointing to the train, gesturing that she had seen the boy they were supposed to be protecting. Letting Naruto's much bulkier frame cut through the rapidly thinning crowd, they caught three mops of red being attacked by a fourth red mop. The redheads disengaged themselves from who Naruto assumed to be their mother; surely that shade of red hair couldn't be too common here. The train left the platform moments after Naruto and Sakura stepped on board. It took the pair a while find the compartment which Harry Potter was sitting in. Naruto knocked and opened the door slightly so that he could converse with the occupants. There were three boys and three girls in the compartment, half the group the students they had been hired to protect.

Bending slightly at the waist he introduced himself. "Hello, my name is Uzumaki Naruto, and this is Haruno Sakura," pulling the kunoichi into view. "All the other compartments seem to be full, I was wondering if we could join you."

Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny and Neville looked up at the newcomers, while Luna continued to read her magazine upside down. Harry and Ron took in the pair's clothes with an arched eyebrow, the girls similarly intrigued. Naruto and Sakura wore their new greatcoats, open and hanging to just above the ankle. Sakura wore a rather tight, red crew necked, short sleeved tee shirt, not tight enough for her to poke through, but still showing her athletic physique to the boys' appreciative eyes. She also wore a black pair of pants made of the same rugged material as the ridiculously low slung pants she had worn the first day in London, although these required no belt to prevent any embarrassing accidents, tucked into what appeared to be shin high combat boots, complete with the steel toe and long laces. Her jaw-length, pink hair was held back with a red band, leaving a few strands to frame her face. Naruto was wearing a painfully orange skintight tank top, and beige cargo shorts, which looked somewhat odd with his black combat boots and coat. Naruto had allowed his bright blond hair to grow out slightly, about six inches, so that it no longer stood up in tufts, instead darkening a bit, looking vaguely like fur. Sakura's pink hair and Naruto's blond was considered also, mostly by Harry and Ron, both wondering what they used to get those particular shades. Hermione and Ginny's gazes lingered on the half pendants each wore, and the odd green crystal resting against Naruto's chest.

Hermione ignored the two boys who were apparently content to just gape at the new arrivals. She smiled and waved them in. Naruto walked in and hefted his traveling trunk and swung it up with one hand with no apparent effort on his part, a feat which he repeated with Sakura's trunk. Everyone in the compartment stared at the newcomer with some amount of awe and disbelief given that the two newcomer's trunks were at least half again as large as their own.

"Jeez man, how'd you do that?" Ron finally managed to croak as they found their seats.

"Eh, what do you mean 'do that'?"

"I think he means that your trunks are a good bit larger than ours, and you swung them up on the cargo racks pretty easily," Hermione clarified.

"Well, I am pretty strong I guess."

"Do you work out?" Neville asked.

"Yeah, we both do. We go running every morning and then lift weights for an hour after that," expounding on some of the back story the two had concocted between them.

"How much can you bench?" Ron asked curiously.

"I don't really know. I've never gone over two hundred."

"You bench press two hundred pounds? That's pretty impressive, man."

"Yeah, but that is nothing compared to Sakura-chan. She can do over three." Sakura scowled at her boyfriend, cursing his big mouth. They were supposed to blend in, and the first chance he get he starts bragging about how strong he was.

"Naruto is just exaggerating. I do about one hundred." The intensely curious looks subsided slightly at that, hearing that Naruto was just exaggerating.

"If you don't mind my asking, what are you two doing at Hogwarts? No offense, but you are obviously foreigners," Neville questioned them, changing the subject.

Grinning, Naruto told them, "We are from the Imperial Institute of Magic, in Japan. Your Headmaster contacted ours earlier in the year and proposed an exchange program, to promote peace, prosperity, and better relationships with other schools of magic. Well, that's what Tsunade-obaa-chan said anyways." Sakura rolled her eyes at Naruto's fabrications; she resisted the urge to pound her boyfriend into unconsciousness.

Sakura continued from where he left off. "Tsunade-shishou chose us because I was third in my class, and Naruto was dead-last, to show one of the best, and worst from our school."

Naruto immediately made his objections known about being referred to by his old school nickname. "Hey Sakura-chan, they didn't need to know that! It was mostly the teacher's fault I sucked so bad." Their argument rapidly devolved from there, Sakura cocking her arm back to slug Naruto, when she noticed their bewildered spectators. The other six students were watching the two yell at each other, the requisite concentration to activate the translation spell cast on their necklaces so negligible to the pair's trained mind that with the last week or so to practice that it had become an unconscious effort to them.

As Sakura lowered her fist, Harry said, "You two aren't married by any chance?" fighting to contain a grin, voicing everyone's sentiment.

Grinning again, their fight completely forgotten, Naruto replied, "Nope. Although it took almost five years before Sakura agreed to go out with me, Konoha's Number One Most Surprising N-mph!"

Sakura smiled weakly at the others while he clamped a hand over Naruto's mouth before he could ruin their cover. In response to their confused looks, she said "Number One Most Surprising Student, right Naruto?" giving a subtle emphasis on the word student. He quickly nodded his acquiescence, realizing how close he came to majorly screwing up.

Ginny turned to Sakura and said with a wry twist to her mouth, "I can see why it took you so long to agree to date him Haruno. He surely thinks a lot of himself, doesn't he?"

"Of course I do. Back home, I was the Prank Master, before I graduated the Academy. But you know you don't have to call her by her surname."

"Eh, what? You said your name was Haruno," Ron stated, confused.

Suddenly remembering, Sakura clarified, "At home, we give our surnames before our given names. Sorry, I forgot." Sakura continued Naruto's explanation, when she told them about her name. "Back home, we start school at six, and graduate at twelve. Then we are grouped by three and given a personal teacher, who teaches us more advanced magic," further expounding the back story that Naruto had begun to tell earlier. Naruto let his gaze wander around the compartment, gaze latching onto a particularly disgusting thing.

Seeing where Naruto's gaze had fallen, Neville proudly whipped out the plant he called the Mimbulus mimbletonia. It was the single ugliest plant that anyone in the compartment had ever seen, most closely resembling a diseased, necrotic internal organ, pulsating in a rather sickening manner. Apparently it was really rare, for abundantly clear reasons, and when Neville prodded the thing with a quill to show off its plentiful defensive mechanisms, it ejected rather copious amounts of Stinksap. Ginny used a quick Scourgify Spell to destroy the vile substance, much to the relief of the cabin at large.

A couple hours after the incident with the thing, for Naruto was hesitant to actually call it a plant, the compartment door slid open and a pale, platinum-blond boy. Harry's eyes narrowed behind his glasses, practically shouting "What?" at the newcomer, with two boys Naruto could only label as goons flanking him.

"Manners, Potter, or I'll have to give you a detention," the boy drawled. "See, unlike you, I have been made a prefect, which means that, I unlike you can hand out punishment." Ignoring Harry's retort, the boy just then noticed the two shinobi. Bowing slightly in Sakura's direction, he smiled. "My name is Draco Malfoy. I can tell that you are new here, so why don't you come with me, away from these Mudbloods and bloodtraitors, so I can show you what a real wizard is."

"Leave Sakura alone Malfoy," Hermione stated coldly.

"What, did I hit a nerve, Mudblood?"

"No, it's that this is a git-free area, so you're not allowed in here." Ron's face was quickly approaching his hair tone, a danger sign that Malfoy ignored.

"Watch it, Weasel. We all know who the better wizard, between us, is. You shouldn't interfere with your superiors."

As both Harry and Ron opened their mouths to retort, Naruto stood up, his normally bright blue eyes now hard and cold. "Leave now Malfoy. I'm only going to tell you once."

The two goons tensed at the tiny killing intent Naruto was exuding, and though Malfoy felt it, he shrugged it off with some difficulty. Looking down at the five inches separating their eyes, he sneered, "Oh yeah, and what are you going to do, runt?"

Ignoring the insult, Naruto instead jacked Malfoy in the face with a light punch, quick enough that Malfoy didn't even have time to blink. Landing hard on his ass, Malfoy reached up and covered the profuse stream of blood that was issuing from his flattened nose. The goons looked like they were about to do something extremely stupid, when Naruto faced them. "That's what I will do. Now, get your boss back to whatever hole you three crawled out of." Flicking another disdainful glance at the prone boy, he slammed the compartment door closed.

"Nice job Naruto," Ron was grinning enough for everyone in the compartment combined.

"You know, Naruto, he's just going to report you to one of the professors. You'll have detention before you're even Sorted." She had her arms crossed under her breasts, a scowl etched into her features.

"Eh, it can't be anything worse than what Perverted Sage has done to me before."

"Did you say 'Perverted Sage' Naruto?" Ron managed to choke out.

"Yeah. He was my teacher for a couple of years. He's a pervert, likes to watch women in the bath, for his dirty books." At this Hermione was torn between anger at Naruto's teacher and laughter as Naruto told a few anecdotes of a couple of times he had gotten caught.

Hermione checked her watch and looked outside. "We better change. We are going to arrive at Hogwarts soon." Naruto and Sakura left the compartment, each with a bundle under their arms, and returned fifteen minutes later, with their greatcoats slung over their arms. Ron and Hermione departed among the racket of students retrieving their luggage and pets ready for departure. Naruto held his trunk in one hand, and Sasuke's cage in the other, while Tora wrapped itself around Sakura's shoulders. Luna took Ron's miniature owl, Pigwidgeon, fluttering and shrieking madly until Sasuke let out a particularly piercing hoot.

Harry was looking for Ron and Hermione, wanting to comment about Professor Grubbly-Plank gathering the first years instead of Hagrid. As the group approached the formerly horseless carriages, shuffling pets among themselves Harry commented on the steeds. They were completely black, fleshless parodies of horses, with reptilian skin stretched taught across their frames. "What are those things you reckon?"

"What things?" Ron replied.

"The horse thing pulling the carriages", drawing the attention of the rest of the group.

"What are you talking about?"

"I'm talking about -- look!" Harry grabbed Ron's arm and set him in front of the skeletal horse.

"What am I supposed to be seeing?"

"At the -- there, between the shafts, pulling the carriages." As Ron continued to stare at him bemusedly, Harry had a thought. "Can't you see them?"

"Harry there is nothing there."

"No, I see them too," Naruto interjected.

"As do I," Luna murmured.

"And me, I see them," Sakura continued. That just confused the other Hogwarts students even more, as Harry, Luna and the new students could see them, but no one else could. With Luna, that wasn't anything unexpected, as she believed in anything that required a suspension of reality, but for Harry, Naruto, and Sakura to see them also was just plain odd.

"Well, whatever they are, we should get going, we don't want to be late to the feast." Hermione had a look of intense concentration, trying to decipher the reason why some of them could see the beasts and some couldn't.

As the coach swayed its way up to the castle with the strange beasts, conversation turned to Professor Grubbly-Plank, and the conspicuous absence of a certain half giant. Naruto and Sakura sat silently with Harry, while Ron and Hermione defended Hagrid's teaching practices from Luna. Harry tried to spot lights coming from Hagrid's cabin on the edge of the Forbidden Forest, but the grounds were completely dark.

Luna, Naruto and Sakura left the Gryffindors, Luna for the Ravenclaw table and the two shinobi lingering by the great double doors waiting for the Deputy Headmistress to enter with the first years. The first years and ninja marched up to the raised dais at the opposite end of the room. Whispers erupted at the sight of the two Japanese people, towering over the much shorter first years, and their peculiar mode of dress.

Naruto was wearing a male _kimono_, orange of course, with swirling flame decals along the hem and sleeves. There was a large black fox embroidered across the chest, and wrapping around the back. A red, thigh-length _haori_, with a white _haori-himo_, was draped over the _kimono_. His _obi _sash was a light blue, with a light green _datjime_. Naruto had four kamon, swirling red circles embroidered onto his clothes, one on the back on his _haori_, one on ech of the sleeves, and on over his left breast, over his heart on his orange _kimono. _

Sakura was wearing a pink _kimono_, with red Japanese maple leaves embroidered on, as if floating on the wind. Her _obi_ sash was the same shade of green as her eyes, and a light blue _datejime_, and had her hair tied up by a silk sakura _kanzashi_. Sakura had her Both wore white _tabi_, and brown leather _zori. _Sakura had her _kamon _in the same places as Naruto, but hers were white rings, instead of the circle.

Professor McGonagall set a worn hat on a three legged stool. Naruto started at the abrupt voice emanating from a rip near the brim. However, the longer the song went on, the more she frowned, telling Naruto that it was supposed to tell the qualities of each House, rather give warnings against the Sorting itself.

"Abercrombie, Euan," was called first, and the hat considered a moment before bellowing "GRYFFINDOR!" Gradually, the line of first years shrunk, and when "Zeller, Rose" was Sorted into Hufflepuff, that left Naruto and Sakura alone on the dais. The whispers increased, as McGonagall had never Sorted two students out of alphabetical order. The Headmaster rose and spread his arms for his usual start of term speech.

"To our newcomers," said Dumbledore, gaze falling across the newly Sorted first years and as-yet unsorted shinobi, "welcome! To our old hands, welcome back. This year I am extremely pleased to say that we are hosting two foreign exchange students, from the Imperial Institute of Mana, located in far-away Japan."

Waving to Professor McGonagall and bowing slightly, he gestured for them to be Sorted. McGonagall called "Haruno, Sakura," and placed the over sized wizard's hat up her head, she heard a voice inside her head, and was barely able to restrain the knee-jerk reflex that would have had her attempting to expel the Hat's consciousness from her mind.

"Hm... a shinobi I see. You are the first of your kind that I have ever met. Very astute I see, plenty of courage, a determination to prove yourself. And a bit of a temper too. I would say you would be perfect for Ravenclaw if not for my instructions to place you in Gryffindor."

"Instructions?"

"Oh yes. I know why you are here Haruno-san" the hat replied, revealing a surprising knowledge of Japanese language. "You are here to protect Harry Potter, and you can't do that very well if you are in a separate House. Oh well, it must be GRYFFINDOR" the hat roaring the last word.

A vigorous round of applause erupted from the red and gold decorated table, as Sakura got a seat near Hermione. McGonagall said "Uzumaki, Naruto" and his golden blond hair was hidden under the ebony hat.

"And you are the other shinobi I see, and a Jinchuuriki." At this Naruto bristled. "Nearly genius intellect I see, even if you haven't used it all. And more courage than anyone I have ever sorted, willing to sacrifice yourself for your friends without a second thought. Fierce determination. You want to prove yourself to your village almost more than anything else in the world. My, my. Even if I didn't have instructions to put you there, you are most certainly a GRYFFINDOR!" Before Naruto could ask what that last meant, the hat was yanked off his head, and directed to where he was to sit. This time a loud buzz arose with the pronouncement, everyone surprised that Gryffindor got both of the new students.

Dumbledore stood up again and said, "I know you all must be bursting with questions, but now is not the time to ask them, so tuck in!"

Naruto strode over to the Gryffindor table trying to avoid from treading on the hem of his _kimono_ and doing a face plant in front of the entire student body. Sakura was able to hold herself with considerably more grace than he was, as Naruto could count on one hand the number of times he had been forced to dress up. Naruto paused at the bench, trying to figure out how to get over it without messing up his carefully folded and layered clothes. After a moment he shrugged and simply hopped up on the bench and slid off it into a sitting position.

"Those are really pretty clothes you two are wearing." Ginny was seated next to Harry, across from Naruto and Sakura.

"Thanks," Naruto replied, blushing a little.

Hermione was examining them closely. Sakura smiled and tilted her head. "These are called _kimono." _Sakura quickly gave a brief description of all the varied pieces of the formal _kimono_.

"Hey Sakura, hey Sakura, look they have ramen!" waving a steaming bowl of noodles in her face, nearly scalding her when the food finally appeared. Sakura helped herself to the ramen also. Setting their bowls down they clapped their hands before them and said "itadakimasu." The table had been set with many traditional Japanese foods, including ramen, various donburi, steamed rice with various toppings, nimono, stewed meat, and itamemono, stir fried vegetables. There were sets of chopsticks set by each place, as well as spoons, forks, and knives. Twenty minutes into the meal, a significant portion of the student body had given up trying to use the chopsticks, or were using them improperly, such as using them to spear their food. Harry and the rest were being shown how to hold the twin pieces of wood properly to eat with.

When the two shinobi had finished their meal, they clapped hands again and said "gochisōsama deshita." When Ginny asked what that meant, Naruto told her that it was polite to give thanks for a meal.

Ron got into an argument with the Gryffindor House ghost, Nearly Headless Nick, and most of the meal was spent in silence between Hermione and the aforementioned redhead. As the students gradually finished their meal, and the volume level rose but was cut off abruptly as Dumbledore rose to make his traditional post-feast speech.

"Well, now that we are all digesting another magnificent feast, I beg your attention for a few start of term announcements. First I am sure that you all are wondering who our guests are. Mister Uzumaki and Miss Haruno are going to be joining our fifth years this term in an effort to promote international friendship and exchange of information. Please show them your every kindness, as I am sure that they will need it. We have had two changes of staff this year. We are very pleased to welcome Professor Grubbly-Plank, who will be filling the position of Care of Magical Creatures instructor this term. Also, we are delighted to introduce Professor Umbridge, our new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher." After a round of decidedly unenthusiastic clapping, Dumbledore was interrupted from Quidditch announcements by soft cough. Professor Umbridge had gotten to her feet, unnoticed at first, because she was not much taller standing than sitting. Abruptly he sat down, an expression that said he wanted nothing more than to hear what she had to say on his face, while the other members of staff looked extremely surprised.

"Thank you Headmaster, for those kind words of welcome. Well, it is lovely to be back at Hogwarts, I must say! And to see such happy little faces looking back at me," She spoke to an extremely surprised audience, who realized that they were being addressed as if they were five years old. "The Ministry of Magic has always considered the educations of young witches and wizards to be of vital importance. The rare gifts with which you were born may come to nothing if not nurtured and honed by careful instruction. The ancient skills unique to the Wizarding community must be passed down through the generations lest we lose them forever. The treasure trove of magical knowledge amassed by our ancestors must be guarded, replenished, and polished by those called to the noble profession of teaching.

"Every headmaster and headmistress has brought something new to the school, and that should be, for without progress there will be stagnation and decay. But progress for progress's sake is to be discouraged, for tried and true traditions require no improvement. A balance must be maintained between the old and the new, between tradition and innovations..."

At the end of her speech Dumbledore clapped, with the rest of the staff slowly following. Naruto and Sakura looked at one another. They had found their interference alright. Seeing that most of the students were starting to nod off, Dumbledore dismissed the students. Following the Golden Trio in the roar of benches scraping back and chatter of hundreds of mouths, Naruto and Sakura kept an eye out for Malfoy, for they were certain that they hadn't seen the last of him.

The two ninja, who had mostly adjusted to the surprise of the paintings talking to passersby, just blinked when Harry stopped in front of the painting of the Fat Lady, stepping through the narrow tunnel behind her. Harry went straight to the fifth year's dormitory, followed closely by Naruto. Harry greeted two of his dorm mates, Seamus and Dean. Unnoticed by Harry, Naruto stepped up behind him when Seamus mentioned that his mother hadn't wanted him to come back to Hogwarts. Naruto wasn't particularly large, at five foot four, but he had years of experience at being intimidating. He had a freaking demon sealed in him. If he couldn't scare a pair of teenage civilians, then he had no business being a shinobi.

Seamus quickly backed down, much to Harry's confusion. He turned around, but all he saw was a grinning Naruto. However, Seamus managed to tear down the hangings on his four poster before repairing them. Naruto carefully opened his trunk, hoping that when he had packed earlier, he had stuck all his ninja stuff down at the bottom. Removing his orange pants and cat nightcap, he climbed in bed and closed the hangings. He came out a minute later, in his sleep clothes, greatcoat rolled into a bundle to protect his ninja-to from wandering eyes.

When he stood up to go perform his evening toilet, he looked in confusion at the other four boys who were staring at him. "What?"

"Dude, you're ripped! You have a frigging eight pack man!"

"Uh, yeah, I guess so." Naruto smiled hesitantly, scratching the back of his head in a nervous tic.

"How often do you work out Naruto?" Neville asked.

"Every day, pretty much." Quickly, Naruto dashed into the bathroom and locked it behind him, escaping the impressed eyes of the other boys. Fortunately, when he reemerged from the bathroom, his dorm mates had already gone to bed.

Naruto awoke well before the sun was up the next morning, shocked awake by his shinobi alarm clock. Some enterprising soul had created a silent alarm clock for ninjas to use on missions, where a noisy alarm clock was prohibitive. This model had two rings attached by wires, where one put the rings around their fingers and when it was time, the clock would deliver slowly escalating electric charges to the person. Naruto silently slipped through his hanging and into the bathroom where he performed his morning ablutions and got dressed. When he descended the stairs to the common room, Sakura was already there, dressed in her training uniform, which was really just her ninja outfit, for both of them. Together they exited the common room, ignoring the Fat Lady's protesting squawk. Quickly, the pair made their way down to the ground floor and dashed to the edge of the Forbidden Forest.

Going through their warm up exercises, the two shinobi set themselves into matching Goken stances. Naruto struck first, with a straight right jab aimed at Sakura's temple. Sakura twisted a hand slightly and drew on her chakra enhanced strength, stopping the stone crushing blow cold. Before she could retaliate, Naruto drove a sweeping kick towards her short ribs, aiming to drive her back to gain some space to get some momentum. Sakura however, was not one to comply. Instead, she angled her other arm, catching the kick on her forearm and redirecting it up and over her head, causing Naruto to rotate around his still captured fist. Right as she sensed his forearm reaching the breaking point, she released him scuttling closer to drive a short punch to his solar plexus.

Naruto twisted to one side, deftly rolling up her extended arm and around her shoulder, aiming a sharp elbow blow to her left kidney. However, Sakura followed him in his twirling dodge, so instead of his elbow colliding with her flesh, he found her hand on his throat. "Getting slow Naruto," Sakura said with a grin. Naruto grinned right back. Naruto replied by grabbing her thumb and pulling back to breal the lock, flipping backwards to gain some breathing room. Charging again, Naruto lead with his fist. Years ago, Sakura would have just scowled and caught his punch again, but over the years, Naruto had become an exceedingly crafty fighter, and the person who accpted his attacks at face value was begging to be beaten mercilessly. So that is why instead of blocking or parrying his hammerfisted strike she danced away. I was a damn good thing too, because as Naruto reached the spot where she had been before, he exploded. To be sure, it was a small explosion, barely stroger than a normal dispel, but would have been enough to stun her for the critical second it would take for Naruto to incapacitate her.

"_Hehe, nice dodge of my Kage Bunshin Jisatsu (Kage Bunshin Suicide) Sakura-chan"_

_"I thought there was no ninjutsu during taijutsu spars?"_

_"Well, you can't really count Kage Bunshin as ninjutsu with me Sakura-chan. It's my best technique!"_

_"Yeah, well, whatever." _Sakura rolled her eyes. Focusing back on Naruto, she began circling him. Naruto circled the opposite way, and each waiting for the other to strike first. This time, Sakura took the initiative, ducking low and launching herself forward. Predictably, Naruto dodged her by jumping up. Sakura rotated her torso, clamping her fingers around Naruto's ankle, and used her momentum to slam him face first into the soil. Naruto bounched once before flipping to his feet, broken nose rapidly healing. Not wanting to give him the chance to recover, she curled into a ball as she was launched upwards from the reactive force of slamming Naruto into the ground. Sakura landed on fingers and toes behind Naruto as he regained his feet, only to have his ankles painfully swept out from under him.

Naruto thrust one hand to the ground, doing a one-handed cartwheel, narrowly avoiding Sakura's descending fist. A moment alter, both of them were on their feet, Sakura panting slightly harder than Naruto. Sakura knew that he had a nearly infinite well of stamina to draw from, and while her own chakra reserves weren't that bad, if she kept up like this for much longer, Naruto would win by virtue of being able to outlast her. Therefore, it was critical that she end the ficght as soon as possible. Unfortunately, Naruto was not one to oblige her wishes at the moment.

Naruto gradually sped up their sparring session, to the point where it was all Sakura could to dodge and block his attacks. He had trained with Maito Guy and Rock Lee in preparation for the ANBU trials last year, and his taijutsu speed was in the top five shinobi of his generation. He was able to maintain his level of speed for as long as he needed to, thanks to the fox housed in his soul.

They sparred for a good hour, until both were panting and pouring sweat in the cool morning air. As they made their way back to the Gryffindor Tower, they drew quite a few stares, the two of them in training garb and sweating like pigs. Each sported a couple of bruises from when they absolutely could not block an incoming blow. However, it wasn't until they passed the portrait of the Fat Lady and walked into the common room arm in arm that they really got some good looks. Hermione and Ron had cornered two taller boys, kin of Ron, Naruto thought, as all three had what seemed to be the trademark Weasley hair and freckles. Hermione paused in the middle of what looked like a mother berating her misbehaved children, and the twins took the opportunity to escape, each giving Sakura a mischievous wink.

They passed thought the common room quick enough so that they didn't have to answer any awkward questions, escaping into their respective dorms. Naruto and Sakura met back down at the Great Hall. Giving a cursory greeting to his immediate neighbors, Naruto set to his meal with a will, grabbing everything within reach and piling it onto his plate. When it was full, he then set to removing the food. Sakura grinned slightly at the unabashed stares that the fifth years were giving Naruto and a chuckle at Hermione's slightly nauseated look.

"Does he eat like this every day?" the female Gryffindor prefect asked.

"Pretty much, especially after a good work out session."

"Is that where the two of you were?" Ron asked through a mouthful of egg.

"Yeah, we were down by the edge of the Forbidden Forest. Don't worry, we didn't go in," heading off what she saw to be a lecture from Hermione.

"I was wondering what had happened to Naruto when I woke up this morning and he wasn't in his bed." Harry looked over to Naruto, who had yet to slow down in the slightest. "How long were you out there?"

"Only an hour or so. We got a late start today."

"Really?" Sakura was saved from having to answer that as Professor McGonagall came sweeping down the table handing out schedules.

Ron groaned as he realized that he had History of Magic, Potions, Divination and Defense Against the Dark Arts all in one day. However his grief was eased somewhat to know that both Naruto and Harry would be suffering with him. Sakura and Hermione shared all of the courses except for Divination, and had Arithmancy with Hermione.

The five of them made their way down to the dungeons of the castle where Snape held Potions class, probably to avoid unnecessary collateral damage in the likely event that someone's potion went critical. Naruto instantly disliked the Slytherin House Head, as he gave directions to brew the Draught of Peace in his malicious, gravelly voice.

Naruto proved to be a surpisingly good a potioneer, much to Ron and Harry's ire, while Hermione was delighted to discover that Sakura was as academically minded as she was, Hermione and Sakura being the only two students to be able to correctly brew the potion.

The group split up after that, Hermione and Sakura heading to Arithmancy, and Harry, Ron and Naruto ascending the miles of stairs to Professor Trelawney's tower. After browsing disinterestedly through the Dream Oracle searching for ominous portents in each others dreams, the five of them regrouped at the door to Professor Umbridge's class. Bemoaning about how much homework they had on the first day of school, the class entered the room quietly, as Umbridge was an unknown quantity. Harry was rather hoping that she was more like Lupin than Lockhart himself.

Unfortunately, she seemed like neither, first getting the class to respond in unison, and telling everyone to put their wands away, she tapped the black board, cursive script saying 'Defense Against the Dark Arts' and below that 'A Return to the Basics." She set the class to reading chapter one of their textbooks after telling them that they were to be following a strictly Ministry-approved course syllabus. Naruto and Sakura exchanged a look. More interference it seemed.

When everyone had set to their task Hermione patiently raised her hand, waiting to Umbridge to call on her.

"I have a query about the course aims, Professor."

"How so Miss-?"

"Hermione Granger."

"Miss Granger, they seem perfectly clear to me."

"Yes, but there is nothing about using defensive spells."

"Using defensive spells? Why, I can't imagine any situation arising in my classroom that would require you to use a defensive spell, Miss Granger. You aren't expecting to be attacked in class, are you?"

"What? We aren't going to be using magic at all in class?" Naruto had stood up, pressing palms to the desk, an angry expression on his face.

"Students raise their hand to be heard in my class, Mister?"

"Uzumaki."

"Well, Mister Uzumaki, I don't know how things are done where you come from, but here, it is the teacher who makes the decisions about how the class will be run."

"But isn't the point of DADA to practice defensive magic?"

"Are you a Ministry-trained educational expert Mister Uzumaki?"

"No, but I-"

"Then I have to say that you are not qualified to say what the point of Defense Against the Dark Arts is. Now sit down."

Naruto did so, sullenly. Umbridge went back and forth with various students, all the while preaching Ministry-this and Ministry-that. In fact, it was the Ministry's opinion that they should be able to pass their OWL's with nothing more than a theoretical knowledge of defensive magic.

Umbridge manage to keep her cool for the most part until Harry stood up. "And what good is theory going to do us in the real world?"

"This is not the real world Mister Potter, this is school."

"How are we supposed to be prepared for what is waiting out there?"

"I assure you Mister Potter, that there is absolutely nothing out there, despite what Albus Dumbledore would have you believe."

"Are you sure? Because Voldemort," Harry said, emphasizing the name, "seems like a pretty big something."

"Ten points from Gryffindor for cheek, Mister Potter. Let me explain. There are some who would have you believe that a certain Dark wizard has risen from the dead-"

"He wasn't dead, but he certainly is back!"

Umbridge continued as if she had not heard him. "And that is a lie."

"I'm pretty sure the person that I fought at the end of last year was Voldemort, and he looked pretty healthy to me."

"Detention, Mister Potter. Now I repeat. He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named is not back, and the Ministry of Magic furthermore assures you all that none of you are in any danger whatsoever from any Dark wizards. If you are still worried, by all means, come and see me after class and I will find out who is alarming you with fibs about reborn Dark wizards. I am only here to help. I am your friend. Now, please turn to page five, 'Basics for Beginners.'

However, Naruto was not done. "So you are saying that your Ministry is willing to ignore the death of Cedric Diggory, a British citizen and Hogwarts student without even a cursory investigation?"

"I don't know where you heard that Mister Diggory's death was anything but a tragic accident, Mister Uzumaki, but there was an investigation, settled to the satisfaction of the Minister of Magic."

This time, Naruto pointed to Harry. "This man says that he faced down the greatest threat to your country in the last fifty years and you dismiss his claims out of hand? If Potter says that he faced down Voldemort-" Umbridge gave a small shudder at the name, as did most of the class, "then I see no reason not to believe him. You all fear this Voldemort so badly that you shake at the mention of his name, and refuse to name him. Did you ever think that maybe this is what Voldemort wanted? His greatest nemesis defamed by the very people he is trying to defend?" Most unnerving of all, Naruto's cerulean blue irises seemed to take the faintest violet tinge, as if his anger was spilling out and coloring his eyes slightly. Sakura grabbed his arm, drawing his attention, and the red tinge in his eyes vanished as he calmed down.

Professor Umbridge's face was quite blank for a minute. Harry doubted she had been spoken to like that in a long time. After a minute or so, Professor Umbridge called to him in a deceptively sweet girlish voice, "Come here Mister Uzumaki, Mister Potter." If there was ever one person to drive Naruto from the fairer sex, Professor Umbridge and her sugary sweet voice was the one to do it. A moment later, Umbridge gave him a slip of parchment, directing him to Professor McGonagall.

Naruto and Harry ignored Peeves the Poltergeist as he mocked the Japanese man all the way to the Deputy Headmistresses office. They were admitted after a single knock. Looking up to see who it was and then checking the time, she sighed.

"I suppose it was inevitable."

"Huh?" Naruto asked.

"I was expecting Professor Umbridge to upset Mister Potter, but you seem to have caught her attention also. Let me guess. She started telling you how Voldemort was not coming back, and the Headmaster and Potter were all making it up. So you either get angry enough to try to tell her off, or to protect Harry and divert her anger to yourself."

"Well, yeah, I kinda got carried away."

"I see. In the future, please try to avoid arousing Professor Umbridge's ire any more than necessary. She has been sent here from the Ministry, and can cause all kinds of problems for you. However, whatever you said, must have struck a nerve."

"Why do you say that?"

"Because it says here that you are to serve detention with her every night for the next week. What exactly did you say exactly?"

"Um, I mentioned that Cedric Diggory's death had been dismissed out of hand, and that maybe they were doing exactly what Voldemort wanted them to do, denouncing Harry, and denying that he is back."

Smiling slightly McGonagall said "I see. Yes, I can see why that would have irritated dear Dolores." Just then the bell rang, and she dismissed Naruto and Harry with a smile and a flick of the wrist.

The Great Hall

Dinner in the Great Hall was not a pleasant experience for Harry and Naruto. News of their confrontation with Umbridge seemed to have traveled unnaturally fast, even by Hogwarts standards. Harry heard the whispers all round him, no one really seeming to mind if they were overheard. On the contrary, they seemed to be trying to egg him on, so that they could hear his story first hand.

"What I don't get," Harry growled, clutching his silverware in a white knuckled grip, "is why they believed Dumbledore two months ago."

Hermione, glaring at all the whispering students, got up and the Golden Trio plus two left, Ron gazing sadly at his half finished pie. Hermione stormed all the way to Gryffindor Tower. The three boys shared a confused glance, but Sakura just sighed and rolled her eyes, as if the source of Hermione's ire should be obvious to all. Hermione settled in one of the plush overstuffed chairs by the fireplace, petting Crookshanks when he jumped into her lap.

After sulking for a minute she exploded. "How can Dumbledore allow this to happen? How can he let that woman teach us? And in our OWL year too!"

"Well, it's not like we have ever had a great DADA teacher before, Lupin excepted. Its like Hagrid told us, nobody wants the job because it's jinxed."

"But to employ someone that won't actually let us practice magic? What is Dumbledore playing at?"

"You know Hermione; I had expected you to realize what is going on here." Sakura had crossed her arms and stared levelly at the other woman. "It's obvious that the Ministry has planted her here. Although, I don't know why, but she is definitely Fudge's creature."

However, the conversation was abruptly derailed as Hermione noticed Fred and George handing out suspicious pieces of candy. Sure enough, one by one the first years all slumped over in dead faints.

Marching over to the twins, she demanded they stop.

"Or what Hermione?" Fred asked. "Put us in detention?" he continued in an I-would-like-to-see-you-try voice.

"Make us write lines?" George said smirking.

Onlookers, especially Naruto, laughed thinking that the twins had beaten Hermione, but she drew herself up to her full height, eyes narrowing, her hair seeming to crackle with electricity.

"No, but I will write your mother."

"You wouldn't," Fred gasped, falling back a step, horrified.

"Just try me. I can't stop you from taking them yourselves, but I can put a stop to your 'research.'"

Fred and George looked thunderstruck. it was clear that as far as the twins were concerned, Hermione's threat was way below the belt.

"Thank you for your support," Hermione spat at Ron when she returned to her seat.

Ron had sunk so low in his chair that he was about to fall off. "You handled them pretty well by yourself," he mumbled.

The next day was just as leaden as the previous one, clouds threatening to rain, but still holding off. Hermione ignored Ron during breakfast, much to the secret amusement of the two foreigners. Double Charms and double Transfiguration began in much the same way, with Flitwick and McGonagall spending the first fifteen minutes lecturing about the importance of OWLS. Panicking slightly at the amount of homework assigned already in their first two classes, Harry, Ron and Naruto spent lunch in the library, feverishly working on the essay on the uses of moonstones assigned by Snape. Sakura was whispering at Hermione at the other end of the library.

However, much to the displeasure of everyone, Professor Grubbly-Plank was the one waiting for the Care of Magical Creatures class at the edge of the Forbidden Forest. Harry, Ron and Hermione were worried about the half giant games keeper; they hadn't seen him at all. After introducing the class to bowtruckles and assigning the class to sketch them Harry raised his hand.

"Where is Professor Hagrid?"

"Never you mind," the greying witch replied, efficiently sidestepping the question.

Smirking widely, Draco leaned across the table to grab the largest bowtruckle, and muttered to Harry, "maybe the stupid great oaf's got himself badly injured."

"May you will if you don't shut up," Harry growled back.

"You going to sic your Japanese friend on me, Potter?" With that Malfoy walked away smirked over his shoulder at Harry. Naruto came over to draw Harry's bowtruckle, sporting a grin that guaranteed trouble of some sort.

"Don't worry Harry. I have a feeling that Malfoy is going to be receiving a very unwelcome surprise in the near future." Harry just looked at him with a questioning gaze, but Naruto refused to elucidate.

After Herbology, and yet another essay, Harry and Naruto hurried to the Great Hall, wanting to get some food before their mutual detention with Umbridge at five.

"What now?" Harry muttered wearily seeing a thunderous Angelina Johnson approach.

"I'll tell you what now," she snarled. "How can you have landed yourself in detention for five o'clock on Friday?"

"What? Why... Oh yeah, Keeper tryouts."

"Now he remembers," snarled Angelina. "Didn't I tell you I wanted to do a tryout with the whole team and find someone who fitted with everyone? Didn't I tell you that I'd book the Quidditch pitch specially? And now you've decided that you aren't going to be there?" By this time she had build up some momentum, face red and chest heaving.

"I didn't decide not to be there. Umbridge gave me detention for telling her Voldemort is back."

"Well, you go ask her to let you off Friday, I don't care how. Tell her that You-Know-Who is a figment of your imagination if necessary, just be there."

"You know what," Harry said turning to Ron, "I think we had better check with Puddlemere United and see if Oliver has been killed in training because she seems to be channeling his spirit."

"I agree, with you there. She does seem to be a formidable woman."

"What do you think the odds of Umbridge letting you off Friday?"

"Less than zero." Naruto was grinning.

Harry was immediately suspicious. "Why are you grinning like that Naruto?"

"Oh, it's just that I was thinking that it would be a bit roomier in the dorm after that Angelina chick has killed you." Turning to Ron he said, "What do you think he has that I could claim after his death?"

"Thanks for your vote of confidence Naruto."

"What else are friends for?" At that Harry had to agree.

"Well, with friends like you, who needs enemies?"

"I just hope that she doesn't keep us too late. We have three essays to write, practice Vanishing for McGonagall, do the bowtruckle sketch, and the dream diary."

"And it looks like its going to rain."

"What does that have to do with homework Ron?"

"Nothing" Ron said at once.

At five till five Harry and Naruto bade the others goodbye and headed up to the third floor. When Harry knocked a sugary sweet voice said "come in." Cautiously swinging the door open, the pair examined the room. Harry had known this office under four Defense Professors, but when it came to decorating, Umbridge took the cake for worst interior designer ever.

The surfaces were all draped in lacy covers and cloths. There were several vases full of dried flowers, each on its own doily, and animated cats meowed and purred from their places on ornamental plates on the walls, each in Technicolor and various colors of bows. Tearing his eyes from the revolting sight, Umbridge greeted them.

"Good evening Mister Potter, Mister Uzumaki." She had been hard to spot at first; her luridly flowered robes were the perfect camouflage for such a room Naruto mused.

"Evening," the two delinquents responded in unison.

Directing them to sit down across the table Harry took a breath and said "Um... Professor Umbridge. May I-I ask a favor?"

Umbridge narrowed her bulging eyes.

"Well, the thing is I am on the Gryffindor Quidditch team... and I was wondering if I could reschedule Friday's detention. There are Keeper tryouts and the Captain wants us all to be there. I would be willing to serve additional detentions at a later date."

Harry's heart sank at Umbridge evil smile. "Oh no, no, no, no. This is your punishment for spreading evil, nasty, attention-seeking lies, Mister Potter. And punishments certainly cannot be adjusted to suit the guilty one's convenience. No, you and your friend here," she paused slightly at the look in Naruto's eye, but quickly regained her composure, "will come here at five o'clock tomorrow, and the next day and on Friday too, and will serve your detentions as planned. I think it is rather good penance that you are missing something you really want to do. It ought to reinforce the lesson I am trying to teach you nicely."

Harry's face tightened at her accusations. However, he felt a hand clamp onto his shoulder, calming him down somewhat before he could do something that he would regret later. He looked away from her and dropped his schoolbag beside the straight-backed chair and collapsed into it.

"There," Umbridge said sweetly, "we're getting better at controlling our tempers, even if we need some help," she practically sang, shooting a look to Naruto. "Now you two are going to be doing some lines. No not with your quills," she added when her prisoners bent down to open their bags. "You are going to be using a rather special one of mine," she said withdrawing two long thin quills, with an unusually sharp point. Naruto wondered what the quills would do, for he had not missed the malicious gleam shining in her eyes when she spoke of the 'special' quills.

"I want you to write 'I must not tell lies,'" she whispered to them.

"How many times?" Harry asked, with a credible imitation of politeness.

"Oh, however long it takes for the message to sink in." Waving the two off she sat down behind her desk and bent over a stack of what looked to be essays for making. Naruto was especially worried now, not having missed the venomous emphasis that the professor had placed on the last two words. Also she had neglected to provide any ink, and that made Naruto think that it would produce its own, in a no doubtfully unpleasant manner.

Before Harry could ask about the ink, Naruto touched his quill to paper and wrote: I must not tell lies. Sure enough, the 'ink' was a shining red, matching the color of the incisions carved into the back of his hand, spelling the words out. But as Naruto stared at the words carved into his hand, they healed over, and not on any part of the Kyuubi. The back of his palm was perfectly smooth, but slightly reddened.

Harry quickly discovered that his quill was enchanted in a similar fashion, his quill carving the words into his hand and using the blood for ink. Naruto had opened his mouth to question the professor about these quills, because he couldn't imagine the kindly seeming Headmaster approving of such quills used as punishment, when he thought better. If she were truly an agent of the Ministry of Magic, protesting now could cause all sorts of unwanted problems for the Headmaster, and himself and Sakura.

So he lowered his head and wrote out his lines over and over, dismissing the pain. Sasuke had impaled him with his Chidori years ago, and the pain of having the words carved into his hand was that of a mosquito bite compared to that.

Darkness fell outside the windows, but Harry refused to ask when he would be allowed to stop, nor checked his watch, vowing not to show an iota of weakness to the bitch. Finally she called the pair up to her desk.

"Hand," she said, and took theirs in her hands, examining them closely. "Tut tut, I don't seem to have made much of an impression yet. Well, we will just have to try again tomorrow. You may go."

They left her office rapidly, without a word to her or one another. The school was quite deserted fortunately. Harry doubted he would be able to refrain from tearing into any hapless first year should he happen upon someone.

They had not had a chance to practice Vanishing Spells for Transfiguration, had not written anything in his dream diary for Divination, or finished the bowtruckle sketch for care of Magical Creatures. However, he was far too exhausted to care at the moment, and collapsed into his bed as soon as he had stripped out of his dirty clothes.

The next day was almost as unpleasant as their first. Harry and Naruto ended up skipping breakfast to fill out the dream diaries, before meeting up with Ron and heading to the North Tower. When questioned about last night's detention, Harry was strangely reticent to tell exactly what had happened with Professor Umbridge. Harry cut Naruto off when he was about to tell the truth.

The second detention was just as bad as the last one. Harry's hand became irritated more quickly now, and did not heal quite as well, leaving it puffy and inflamed. Naruto's hand, much to Umbridge's consternation, didn't seem to take well to the quill, not a mark remaining on his hand after detention. By Thursday, Harry was living in a haze of weariness. The incision created by the Crutiatus quill was barely healing at all now, still oozing blood slightly after another two hours of carving the words 'I must not tell lies' into his hand. Naruto was the same as ever though, and Umbridge was practically beside herself trying to figure out why her 'special' quill seemed to have no effect on him.

On the pair's way back to Gryffindor tower, they stumbled upon Ron, of all people hiding behind a statue of Lachlan the Lanky, clutching what appeared to be a Cleansweep Eleven. When questioned he responded, "Alright, I'm hiding from Fred and George. they just went by with a group of first years, probably going to test something on them, because they can't do it in the common room with Hermione now." Naruto's expression clearly said that wasn't the only reason why he was hiding.

"That's no the only reason you are hiding," Naruto told him.

When Ron blushed a fierce red, he knew he had struck gold. "Well if you must know, now that I have a decent broom, I thought I would try out for Keeper this year. Just laugh, I know you want to. "

"Ron that's brilliant. I haven't ever seen you fly though. Are you any good?"

"All my brothers made me play Keeper when we played back at the Burrow, so I have some experience. Fred and George are going to tease me mercilessly though when I show up for the tryouts."

"Just let them. If they do, they will have to deal with the Prank Master!"

That's great," Harry replied. Ron however frowned immediately when he saw Harry's hand in the air. "What's wrong with your hand Harry?"

"Oh, it's nothing, just a cut."

"you didn't get that in Umbridge's detention did you?"

"No, why would you say that?" But instead of responding, Ron snatched Harry's hand and examined it closer. "Harry didn't you say that Umbridge was giving you lines?"

Unfortunately for Ron, their conversation was interrupted by their arrival at the painting of the Fat Lady. Harry took the chance to escape into the dorm and feign sleep. Ron followed him up immediately.

Naruto walked over to the overstuffed armchairs by the fire, and the two girls occupying them. "I found a book that talks about that evil quill that Umbridge made you two use Naruto." Naruto had told Sakura of the detentions immediately, and as soon as he finished Sakura insisted that they tell Hermione also. Naruto didn't want to reasoning that there was a reason that Harry didn't want to tell his two friends about the detentions. Sakura wasn't to be denied however. Once she heard of the quills, she wanted to find out exactly what they were, and if they were even allowed to be used. It sounded to her that the quills probably used Dark magic. So, Sakura recruited Hermione. The pair spent a lot of time in the library, researching various magical means of punishment. It wasn't until earlier that day that they had found what they sought.

Naruto read the title of the book, 'A History of Crime and Punishment in Wizarding Britain,' and opened it to the bookmarked section. A picture of the quill occupied half the page. Under the illustration, it read: 'The Crutiatus Quill is a Dark object that was used as a mild torture. The victim is forced to hold it and write what the captor dictates. The quill does not use ink, instead using the blood of the victim, carving the words into the back of the hand at the same time. The quill will then heal the incision so that the words can be cut again. After a period of time the healing will have less and less effect, eventually causing permanent scarring.'

The book went on from there to describe how exactly it was used and how it functioned. Naruto skipped most of the rest of the article until something near the bottom caught his eye. 'Usage of the Crutiatus Quill has been outlawed in Wizarding Britain for fifty years, by Supreme Mugwump Albus Dumbledore in 1942.'

Naruto looked up at Hermione with a decidedly unpleasant grin. "Alright! This is exactly what we need. All we got to do is go to the Headmaster and tell him that Umbridge is forcing us to use Dark magic as punishment."

Unfortunately, Friday morning, Harry wasn't quite so excited.

"But maybe we can get her sacked with this," Ron told him.

"I doubt that. She is here by order of the Ministry, so I doubt that Dumbledore can get rid of her so easily. Besides, I don't want to give that woman the satisfaction of her knowing that she got to me."

Harry spent the rest of the day in anticipating detention at five. He was sustained by the thought of two things, that today was the final day of detentions, and that he might be able to see something of Ron's Quidditch tryouts from a window in Umbridge's room. They were rays of light, however feeble.

Five o'clock arrived and Naruto and Harry dragged themselves to Umbridge's door. Harry paused, took a breath and knocked on the oaken door. The two sat down and the frothy lace-bedecked table. Umbridge smiled sweetly (for her at least) and pointed to the two pieces of parchment and ebony quills. Harry shifted his chair and inch or so and he was able to obtain a distant view of the Quidditch pitch. There were three black figures at the foot of the goal, but he wasn't able to tell which one was Ron. Every few minutes Harry would flick his gaze out the window, whenever he heard Umbridge's quill scritch-scritching, or a drawer opening.

"Let's see if you have gotten the message yet, shall we, Mister Potter, Mister Uzumaki?" said Umbridge's soft voice half an hour after dark.

Harry handed her his blood-dotted paper, but as his fingers touched hers he got a peculiar sensation around his navel, and a searing pain across his curse scar.

"I think you have gotten the message, haven't you Mister Potter?" seeing the deeply etched words in his skin. She tsked when Naruto handed her his paper, frowning at his unmarked hand. "You however, have not. Well, I think I have made my point regardless. You may both leave."

When Harry uttered the password to the Gryffindor common room, pondering the feeling that had come over him at the end of his detention. When the portrait of the Fat Lady swung open, a nearly solid wall of sound washed over him. Ron ran up to greet him, sloshing butterbeer all over the goblet he was holding.

"I did it Harry! I'm the Gryffindor Keeper!" Ron pressed a bottle of Madame Rosmerta's finest butterbeer in to Harry and Ron's hands. "Wonder what happened to Hermione?"

"Over there," Naruto said. Hermione has passed out in one of the armchairs by the fire, her goblet dangerously close to spilling all over the rug. Fred and George hurriedly hushed them up, a gaggle of first years with signs of recent nosebleeds behind them. Katie Bell pulled Ron away to see if Oliver's old Keepers robes would fit him when Angelina strode up.

"Sorry I was short with you earlier in the week Potter. This isn't just a lark, managing a Quidditch team. I'm starting to think that I was a bit hard on Wood sometimes."

Throwing a concerned glance Ron's way she continued. "I'm hoping that he shows a bit more talent then he did today. both Frobisher and Hooper did a bit better, but Frobisher is a whiner, and Hooper is involved with a lot of clubs. Still, with all the Quidditch players in his family, I think he should be okay."

Somewhere in Angelina's speech, Naruto had disappeared, to be chatting Fred and George up, it seemed. Sighing, terrified to think what the Prank Master and the spiritual successors of the Marauders would come up with, Harry collapsed into a chair near Hermione. She jerked up with a yawn. Judging by the pile of misshapen yarn, she had been up making hats for the elves again. He was intrigued to note that not all of them seemed to be made by the same person.

"Those are mine," Sakura said, popping out from behind Harry's chair.

Harry started, nearly falling out of his chair. "Geez, Sakura, you scared me out of ten years of my life! Don't do that please."

"Do what?" she asked, grinning innocently. "Anyways, Hermione got me to help her make some hats for SPEW."

Harry ignored Hermione's protests at the acronym. "How do you know how to knit?"

"Oh, you know, it's a girly thing that my mom wanted me to learn," she lied. Back in Konoha, female ninjas were taught many of what were considered feminine arts, such as flower arranging, fashion, sewing, knitting and the like. Kunoichi were also taught which flowers were poisonous, but pretty, and how to hide a poisoned senbon in a knitted shawl or blanket.

Harry quickly related what had happened at the end of detention to the two females. Sakura suggested that she was being possessed like Quirrell had been in the first year, knowing from both the detailed military dossier on the event, and from getting the trio to expound on their myriad adventures in prior years.

"I don't think she is being possessed. One, Voldemort has his own body now, and two, you can see her whole head. It isn't wrapped up in a turban like Quirrell's was."

"Perhaps she is under the Imperius curse," Hermione suggested. "On the other hand, it could have nothing to do with her. Remember Dumbledore said that sometimes your pain was linked to Voldemort's emotions?"

"She's evil," Harry replied, "Twisted. There is no way she is normal, not with making Naruto and me use those damned Crutiatus Quills in detention."

"Well, either way, I think you should tell Dumbledore."

"No, Dumbledore doesn't need to know every time my scar twinges."

"I think he would want to be bothered by this Harry, especially given when and where it hurt."

"Well, that's the thing now, isn't it, Sakura? That's all he really cares about: when my scar hurts."

"That isn't fair, Harry."

"Alright then. Tell Ron, I'm going to bed."

"Oh, no you don't. If you're going that means I can go without being rude also. I'm terribly exhausted, even with Sakura helping, and I want to make some more hats tomorrow. Listen," she said brightening up, "you can help if you want. It's actually quite fun. I'm getting pretty good now, with Sakura's help."

Harry paused halfway up the stairs, trying to look the least bit interested. "Err... no thanks... I got a lot of homework to do tomorrow."

And he traipsed off to the boys dorm, leaving Hermione slight crestfallen, and Sakura grinning for some reason...

**A/N: **Well, that's all folks! Please read and review, reviews are nectar and ambrosia to me!

**Japanese clothes:**

Haori: a hip- or thigh-length kimono jacket which adds formality.

Haori-himo: a tasseled, woven string fastener for the haori. The most formal color is white.

**Obi:** a sash worn with kimono by both men and women.

**Datejime:** a thin, sash worn around the obi. This is usually now only used in more formal situations.

**Tabi:** ankle-high, divided-toe socks usually worn with zōri or geta.

**Zōri:** cloth, leather or grass-woven sandals. Zōri may be highly decorated with intricate stitching or with no decoration. They are worn by both men and women. Grass woven zōri with white straps, called hanao, are the most formal for men. They are similar in design to flip-flops.


End file.
